Botrivier Botla | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 34°13′33″S19°12′18″E / 34.22583°S 19.20500°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | Western Cape |
District | Overberg |
Municipality | Theewaterskloof |
Government | |
• Counsellor | Pearl Stanfliet (DA) |
Area | |
• Total | 1.93 km2 (0.75 sq mi) |
Population (2011) [1] | |
• Total | 5,505 |
• Density | 2,900/km2 (7,400/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 22.0% |
• Coloureds | 68.6% |
• Indian or Asian | 0.5% |
• White | 7.4% |
• Other | 1.5% |
First languages (2011) | |
• Afrikaans | 75.7% |
• Xhosa | 14.9% |
• English | 5.2% |
• Sotho | 1.3% |
• Other | 2.9% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | |
PO box | 7185 |
Area code | 028 |
Botrivier is a small town of approximately 10 000 people, [2] situated in the Overberg region of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Village in the former Caledon district, 93 km southeast of Cape Town. It takes its name from the Bot River on the west bank of which it is situated. The form Botrivier is preferred for official use. [3]
Long before Western settlement, this east-facing glen was home to prosperous herders, the Khoi-Khoi, who pastured their livestock in rich pastures along the banks of the “Couga River”. The river flows south towards the marsh Botrivier estuary, and was for centuries the home of contented tribes who savoured the privilege of fresh waters in the water-scarce Cape.
“Rich in fat”, was the river’s name – a tribute to the area’s reputation for “lots of butter”, which the early settlers came in search of to barter for. It was this creamy “botter” (Afrikaans) which gave the “Bot River” its ultimate name.
Later, the hamlet was to become an 18th-century outpost for the Dutch East India Company at Compagnes Drift farm in Botrivier, now home to Beaumont Wines, where the owners have cherished and protected its early heritage. At the same time that a company of soldiers was stationed at the drift at Bot River to monitor who crossed the Cape frontier, Compagnes Drift also developed as a loan farm. Loan farms were owned by the Dutch East India Company. Under this scheme, burghers could rent the land, farm it and profit from it, but they could not own it.
As Napoleon extended his control over Europe, including Holland, the British sought to pre-empt possible French control of the Cape. In January 1806 British forces defeated the Dutch at the battle of Blouberg. Among the handful of Dutch burghers who rendered loyal service in the battle was Servaas Daniel de Kock. As a reward for his service, the Dutch East India Company gave him ownership of the farm he had worked on loan. De Kock planted wheat, vines, fruit trees, vegetables and turmeric—a spice that was in high demand in the curry-loving kitchens of the Cape of Good Hope.
A major event in the life of Botrivier was the arrival of the railway line from Cape Town to Caledon in 1902. In much the same way as the American railway teams forged west in the USA, the Cape tracks were forged through the Hottentots-Holland mountain range above Somerset West – a great engineering feat - and this brought the village of Bot River to its feet when the first trains ran in 1912, allowing villagers, farmers and traders to journey to the Mother City of Cape Town faster than ever before. And the traffic grew from the City into the countryside too. [4]
The Cape Colony, also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, then became the Cape Province, which existed even after 1961, when South Africa had become a republic, albeit, temporarily outside the Commonwealth of Nations (1961–94).
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Theewaterskloof Municipality is a local municipality located within the Overberg District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2007, the population was 108,790. Its municipality code is WC031. The enormous Theewaterskloof Dam, which provides water for Cape Town and the surrounding areas, is located in this municipality.
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The Castle of Good Hope is a bastion fort built in the 17th century in Cape Town, South Africa. Originally located on the coastline of Table Bay, following land reclamation the fort is now located inland. In 1936 the Castle was declared a historical monument and following restorations in the 1980s it is considered the best preserved example of a Dutch East India Company fort.
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The area known today as Cape Town has no written history before it was first mentioned by Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias in 1488. The German anthropologist Theophilus Hahn recorded that the original name of the area was '||Hui !Gais' – a toponym in the indigenous Khoi language meaning "where clouds gather."
Helderberg refers to a planning district of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, the mountain after which it is named, a wine-producing area in the Western Cape province of South Africa, or a small census area in Somerset West.
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Caledon, originally named Swartberg, is a town in the Overberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of Cape Town next to mineral-rich hot springs. As of 2011 it had a population of 13,020. It is located in, and the seat of, the Theewaterskloof Local Municipality.
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The Dutch Cape Colony was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) colony in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original colony and the successive states that the colony was incorporated into occupied much of modern South Africa. Between 1652 and 1691, it was a Commandment, and between 1691 and 1795, a Governorate of the VOC. Jan van Riebeeck established the colony as a re-supply and layover port for vessels of the VOC trading with Asia. The Cape came under VOC rule from 1652 to 1795 and from 1803 to 1806 was ruled by the Batavian Republic. Much to the dismay of the shareholders of the VOC, who focused primarily on making profits from the Asian trade, the colony rapidly expanded into a settler colony in the years after its founding.
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Free Burghers were early European settlers in the 18th century who had been released of their service contracts to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and had become full citizens (burghers). The introduction of Free Burghers to the Dutch Cape Colony is regarded as the beginning of a permanent settlement of Europeans in South Africa. The Free Burgher population eventually devolved into two distinct segments separated by social status, wealth, and education: the Cape Dutch and the Boers.
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