Transvaal (province) · Lablypedia

History

The area has been inhabited since at least the 8th century by the Venda and Sesotho people. From 1817 onwards the region was invaded, as part of the Mfecane, by several Nguni tribes, such as the Matabele, who have been expelled from Natal by the Zulus.

The borders of the Transvaal Province coincided with those of the South African Republic, an independent country ruled by the Dutch-speaking Boers from 1852 to 1902.

At the end of the 1830s, the Boers left with the Great Trek into the interior of South Africa, where the South African Republic was founded. Major cities such as Pretoria and Johannesburg emerged during this period. In 1902, the republic was conquered by the United Kingdom and became part of the British Empire as the Transvaal Colony.

In 1910, four British colonies united to form the Union of South Africa. The Transvaal Colony, which had been formed out of the bulk of the old South African Republic after the Second Boer War, became the Transvaal Province in the new union. Half a century later, in 1961, the union ceased to be part of the Commonwealth of Nations and became the Republic of South Africa. The PWV (Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging) conurbation in the Transvaal, centred on Pretoria and Johannesburg, became South Africa's economic powerhouse, a position it still holds today as Gauteng Province.

In 1994, after the fall of apartheid, the former provinces were abolished, and the Transvaal ceased to exist. The south-central portion (including the PWV) became Gauteng, the northern portion became Limpopo and the southeastern portion became Mpumalanga. Most of the North West came from the southwestern portion of the old Transvaal, and a tiny segment of the Transvaal joined KwaZulu-Natal.

Even before 1994, the Transvaal Province was subdivided into regions for a number of purposes (such as municipal and district courts, and sporting divisions). These divisions included Northern Transvaal (present-day Limpopo and Pretoria), Eastern Transvaal (currently Mpumalanga), Western Transvaal (currently part of North West Province) and Southern Transvaal (now Gauteng Province, but which also includes Pretoria).

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Geography

The Transvaal province lay between the Vaal River in the south, and the Limpopo River in the north, roughly between 22+1⁄2 and 27+1⁄2 S, and 25 and 32 E. To its south it bordered with the Orange Free State and Natal provinces, to its west were the Cape Province and the Bechuanaland Protectorate (later Botswana), to its north Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), and to its east Portuguese East Africa (later Mozambique) and Swaziland. Except on the south-west, these borders were mostly well defined by natural features.

Several Bantustans were entirely inside the Transvaal: Venda, KwaNdebele, Gazankulu, KaNgwane and Lebowa. Parts of Bophuthatswana were also in the Transvaal, with other parts in Cape Province and Orange Free State.

Within the Transvaal lies the Waterberg Massif, a prominent ancient geological feature of the South African landscape.

Regions

PWV region (later Gauteng province) consisting of the Witwatersrand, which in turn consists of the West Rand and the East Rand, as well as Johannesburg; the Vaal Triangle and Pretoria.
The North West
Limpopo
Mpumalanga

Districts in 1991

Districts of the province and population at the 1991 census.

Administrators

Sports

The province was divided into a number of sporting teams. These teams were renamed after the Transvaal became defunct, however their traditional territories have remained unchanged in many cases, even though they overlap the boundaries of the Transvaal's successor provinces.

Examples of this include the Blue Bulls (formerly Northern Transvaal), which governs rugby in Pretoria (now part of Gauteng) and Limpopo Province, and the Golden Lions (formerly Transvaal) formed in 1889.

The Orlando Pirates Football Club was founded in 1937 and was originally based in Orlando, Soweto and Kaizer Chiefs were founded in January 1970. In the same year, Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. originated from Marabastad, a cosmopolitan area north west of the Pretoria CBD in the early 1960s.

Cricket teams from the former Transvaal include Transvaal (later Gauteng) which represented the southern parts of the province, and Northern Transvaal (later Northerns) that represents the northern parts of Gauteng, including Pretoria, as well as areas further north.

Politics

The province was a stronghold of the National Party.