Maletswai Aliwal North | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 30°42′S26°42′E / 30.700°S 26.700°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | Eastern Cape |
District | Joe Gqabi |
Municipality | Walter Sisulu |
Government | |
• Type | Municipal Council |
• Mayor | (ANC) |
Area | |
• Total | 24.18 km2 (9.34 sq mi) |
Elevation | 1,325 m (4,347 ft) |
Population (2011) [1] | |
• Total | 3,992 |
• Density | 170/km2 (430/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 48.1% |
• White | 43.74% |
• Coloured | 5.66% |
• Indian/Asian | 0.95% |
• Other | 1.55% |
First languages (2011) | |
• Afrikaans | 40.31% |
• Xhosa | 29.63% |
• English | 7.16% |
• Sotho | 5.39% |
• Other | 17.51% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | 9750 |
PO box | 9750 |
Area code | 051 (−633- / -634-) |
Maletswai (previously Aliwal North) [2] is a town in central South Africa on the banks of the Orange River, Eastern Cape Province. It is a medium-sized commercial centre in the northernmost part of the Eastern Cape. The Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1855.
One of the first white settlers in the area, Pieter Jacobus de Wet, built a house at the nearby Buffelsvlei around 1828. Sir Harry Smith, [3] Governor of the Cape Colony from 1847 to 1852, formally founded the small town of Aliwal North in the Cape Province of South Africa in 1850. He named the town "Aliwal North" in memory of his victory over the Sikhs at the Battle of Aliwal during the First Sikh War in India in 1846. [4] The town was laid out in 1849 on ground acquired by the government. This was auctioned and 38 lots were sold for £972.
The park in the centre of Maletswai, the Juana Square Gardens, was named after Smith's wife Juana María de los Dolores de León. Municipal status was attained in 1882.
The railway line from Molteno reached Maletswai on 2 September 1885.
On 8 January 1901, following the evacuation of Smithfield during the Second Boer War, Major Kendal Pretyman Apthorp established the Aliwal North concentration camp, which at its height housed approximately 2,000 Boer refugees. The camp was closed by November 1902 after the inmates had been repatriated to their homes. [5]
Maletswai has 10 Primary Schools and 6 High Schools and a technical and vocational training college.
Primary Schools are:
High Schools:
The settlement of the area and its development into a town probably is connected to the presence of good water, thermal springs and a good fording place ('drift') across the Orange River, just below its confluence with the Kraai River. The Frere Bridge was opened in 1880 and later replaced with the General Hertzog Bridge on the N6, leading to Bloemfontein, 206 km to the north. To the south-west of the town, the Kramberg raises to 2000 m above sea level.
Maletswai has the following suburbs:
• Maletswai CBD
• Arbor View
• Buffelsbaden
• Bird's Eye View
• Dukathole
• Hilton
• Joe Gqabi
• Area13
The central business district is surrounded by the following suburbs: Dukathole, Hilton, Joe Gqabi, the Springs (where the well-known Aliwal Spa is situated) and Arborsig. Many residents and staff of the Goedemoed Correctional Services facility (situated on the Free State side of the Orange River) use the town's many businesses, hospital, churches and schools.
The town is connected to neighbouring towns via a good roads system, and serve as a thoroughfare for tourists en route to resorts in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg. Unfortunately, the railway station had to close, due to lack of rail usage. The town also has a good airfield with three grass runways, safe for use during daylight.
The principal attractions of Maletswai are two hot mineral springs, both of which have extremely high concentrations of minerals and gases.
The thermal springs resort, named Aliwal Spa, is located within the municipal area. During 2010–2014 the resort underwent re-construction by Maletswai Local Municipality's contractors, and opened again for public use in 2015. [6]
Köppen climate classification: subtropical highland climate (Cwb).
Climate data for Aliwal North | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 23 (73) | 21 (70) | 20 (68) | 18 (64) | 14 (57) | 12 (54) | 10 (50) | 11 (52) | 13 (55) | 16 (61) | 19 (66) | 21 (70) | 23 (73) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 21 (70) | 21 (70) | 18 (64) | 15 (59) | 10 (50) | 7 (45) | 7 (45) | 10 (50) | 13 (55) | 16 (61) | 18 (64) | 20 (68) | 14 (57) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 11 (52) | 10 (50) | 7 (45) | 4 (39) | 2 (36) | −2 (28) | −3 (27) | 0 (32) | 1 (34) | 4 (39) | 6 (43) | 10 (50) | 12 (54) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 76 (3.0) | 83 (3.3) | 83 (3.3) | 48 (1.9) | 27 (1.1) | 13 (0.5) | 11 (0.4) | 16 (0.6) | 23 (0.9) | 40 (1.6) | 54 (2.1) | 61 (2.4) | 535 (21.1) |
Source: [7] |
The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa.
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province.
The Boer republics were independent, self-governing republics formed by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders – variously named Trekboers, Boers, and Voortrekkers – settled mainly in the middle, northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of present-day South Africa. Two of the Boer republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The republics did not provide for the separation of church and state, initially allowing only the Dutch Reformed Church, and later also other Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition. The republics came to an end after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, which resulted in British annexation and later incorporation of their lands into the Union of South Africa.
Lieutenant-General Sir Henry George Wakelyn Smith, 1st Baronet, GCB was a notable English soldier and military commander in the British Army of the early 19th century. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, he is also particularly remembered for his role in the Battle of Aliwal, India in 1846, his subsequent governorship of the Cape Colony, and as the husband of Lady Smith.
Emily Hobhouse was a British welfare campaigner, anti-war activist, and pacifist. She is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions inside the British concentration camps in South Africa built to incarcerate Boer and African civilians during the Second Boer War.
Winburg - Makeleketla is a small mixed farming town in the Free State province of South Africa.
Jacobsdal is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa with various crops under irrigation, such as grapes, potatoes, lucerne, and groundnuts. The town was laid out in 1859 by Christoffel Jacobs on his farm Kalkfontein, and its last recorded population was 3,504.
The following lists events that happened during 1901 in South Africa.
Strand is a seaside resort town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It forms part of the Eastern Suburbs of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, situated on the north-eastern edge of False Bay and near the foot of the Helderberg Mountains. Its geographical position is between Somerset West and Gordon's Bay, and is about 50 km southeast of Cape Town City Bowl. Strand has a population of approximately 50,000. Strand's main attraction is the beach; 5 km of white sandy beach off False Bay.
Barkly East is a town in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, seat of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, and 117 km by road E.S.E. of Aliwal North, lying in the mountainous area just south of Lesotho. The town lies at the southern tip of the Drakensberg on the Langkloofspruit, a tributary of the Kraai River which, in turn is a tributary of the Orange River at an elevation of 1 790 meter above sealevel. Barkly East is characterized by rugged mountains and green valleys. Snow falls in winter, and the hamlet of Rhodes is 60 km or an hour's drive from Barkly East on the R396. Both are within the boundaries of the Senqu Local Municipality.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Aliwal is a diocese located in the city of Aliwal North in the ecclesiastical province of Eastern Cape in South Africa.
Rhodes is a hamlet or small village alongside the wild trout rich Bell River, near Ben Macdhui in the Drakensberg mountains of the north Eastern Cape, South Africa.
The N6 is a national route in South Africa that connects East London with Bloemfontein, via Komani and Maletswai. It runs roughly from north to south, connecting the N1 with the N2.
Burgersdorp is a medium-sized town in Walter Sisulu in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
Maletswai Local Municipality was an administrative area in the Joe Gqabi District of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The municipality was merged with Gariep Local Municipality immediately after the August 2016 Local Municipal Elections to form the new Walter Sisulu Local Municipality.
Jamestown, officially James Calata, is a town on the N6 national road 58 km south of Aliwal North and 105 km north of Komani in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is at the centre of a fertile sheep, cattle and wheat-farming area and was the terminus of a branch railway line from Molteno. It was named after James Wagenaar, original owner of the farm on which the town was laid out.
Norvalspont is a small town in Pixley ka Seme District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The name is Afrikaans for Norval’s ferry, and named after an enterprising Scot who constructed a ferry here in 1848. The settlement lies some 40 km east-north-east of Colesberg and 43 km west-north-west of Venterstad, on the southern bank of the Orange River, just below the Gariep Dam.
Aliwal North Hospital is a 50-bed government funded District hospital that renders level 1 care to patients in the catchment area of the Walter Sisulu Local Municipality in Aliwal North, Eastern Cape in South Africa.
St Francis Hospital is a defunct Provincial government funded TB hospital for the Walter Sisulu Local Municipality area in Aliwal North, Eastern Cape in South Africa. Previously, it was a Provincially Aided Hospital. It stopped functioning in 2022.
Jozua Francois Naudé was a South African pastor, school founder and co-founder of the Afrikaner Broederbond.