Hartbeespoort | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 25°44′39″S27°53′58″E / 25.74417°S 27.89944°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | North West |
District | Bojanala |
Municipality | Madibeng |
Government | |
• Councillor | Maritza du Plessis (Ward 33) Erna Rossouw (Ward 30) [1] |
Area | |
• Total | 125.89 km2 (48.61 sq mi) |
Population (2011) [2] | |
• Total | 22,374 |
• Density | 180/km2 (460/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 38.2% |
• Coloured | 1.1% |
• Indian/Asian | 0.7% |
• White | 59.4% |
• Other | 0.5% |
First languages (2011) | |
• Afrikaans | 46.5% |
• Tswana | 19.3% |
• English | 7.3% |
• Tsonga | 6.2% |
• Other | 20.7% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | 0216 |
PO box | 0216 |
Area code | 012 |
Hartbeespoort, informally known as "Harties", is a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, situated on slopes of the Magaliesberg mountain and the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The name of the town means "gateway of the hartbees" (a species of antelope) in Afrikaans. Schoemansville, named after General Hendrik Schoeman, a Boer General in the Anglo-Boer War, who owned the farm that the Hartbeespoort Dam was built on, is the oldest neighbourhood of Hartbeespoort. [3]
Hartbeespoort is the collective name of a few smaller towns situated around the Hartbeespoort Dam, including the towns of Meerhof, Ifafi, Melodie, Schoemansville and Kosmos.
The town consists of holiday homes and permanent residences around the dam as it is popular with visitors from nearby Gauteng Province. It is home to the Om Die Dam (English: Around the dam) ultra marathon of 50 km, which takes place annually in the first half of the year.
Some of the main tourist attractions in or around the town are:
Other leisure-oriented venues around the dam include Pecanwood Golf Estate, Hartbeespoort Boat Club (near Kosmos), Sandy Lane Golf Club (at Caribbean Beach Club), Kosmos Marina Club, Magalies Park (estate and golf club). A number of other leisure developments and resorts are in progress.
In 2010 the Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway was completely revamped and modernised and officially reopened on 14 August 2010 by Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk. [5]
Hartbeespoort is part of the Madibeng Local Municipality, that also includes the nearby town of Brits.
Despite the semi-rural setting of the Hartbeespoort environs, it is ranked by the World Health Organization as the most polluted town in South Africa in terms of airborne particulates, with air pollution levels roughly twice that of Vereeniging, a heavily industrialised city south of Johannesburg. [6]
Pretoria, is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
The Wonderboom Nature Reserve is a 1 km², 200-hectare reserve that incorporates a section of the Magaliesberg range in the northern portion of the Pretoria metropole, South Africa. Its main attractions are the Wonderboom near the reserve entrance in Lavender street and the derelict Fort Wonderboompoort on the crest of the Magaliesberg, that was constructed towards the end of the nineteenth century, during the Second Boer War. The latter is reached by following the steep, paved walkway that leads from the picnic area to the summit. The vicinity of the fort ruins also afford sweeping views of the city, whose council declared the area around the Wonderboom and both banks of the Apies River a reserve on 28 December 1949.
The area referred to as Fourways is the fastest-developing commercial and residential hub in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, South Africa. The main access routes to Fourways are off the N1 at R511 Winnie Mandela Drive, or alternatively along R564 Witkoppen Road. It is located mostly in Region E of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. It is roughly as far as one can go in the Johannesburg Metropolitan area before it dissolves into rolling hills, game farms and the capital Pretoria, 55 kilometres to the northeast. Hartebeespoort Dam and the Magaliesberg Mountains lie half an hour to the north-west. It is bordered by Bryanston to the east and south and Randburg to the west.
Randfontein is a gold mining town in the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa, 40 km (25 mi) west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and, in 1889, floated the Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company. The town was established in 1890 to serve the new mine and was administered by Krugersdorp until it became a municipality in 1929. Apart from having the largest stamp mill in the world, Randfontein, like many of the other outlying areas of Johannesburg, is essentially a rural collection of farms and small holdings in a particularly beautiful part of Gauteng.
Rustenburg is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa. In 2017, the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached ZAR 63.8 billion, accounting for 21.1% of the GDP of the North West Province, and 1.28% of the GDP of South Africa. Rustenburg was one of the official host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, being in close proximity to Phokeng, the capital of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, where the Royal Bafokeng Stadium is located. The England national football team also used this as their base camp for the tournament.
The R104 is a regional route in South Africa that is the designation for some of the old sections of roads that were previously the N4, prior to upgrading. It connects Rustenburg in the North West province with eMalahleni in Mpumalanga province via Mooinooi, Hartbeespoort, Pretoria and Bronkhorstspruit. There are two additional sections in Mpumalanga province: a 50km section connecting Middelburg and Wonderfontein and a 17km section passing through Mbombela.
The Magaliesberg of northern South Africa, is a modest but well-defined mountain range composed mainly of quartzites. It rises at a point south of the Pilanesberg to form a curved prominence that intersects suburban Pretoria before it peters out some 50 km (31 mi) to the east, just south of Bronkhorstspruit. The highest point of the Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht, about 1,852 metres (6,076 ft) above sea level. A cableway reaching to the top of the mountain range is located at Hartbeespoort Dam, providing sweeping views of the Magaliesberg and surrounding area.
Hartbeespoort Dam is an arch type dam situated in the North West Province of South Africa. It lies in a valley to the south of the Magaliesberg mountain range and north of the Witwatersberg mountain range, about 35 kilometres north west of Johannesburg and 20 kilometres west of Pretoria. The name of the dam means "dam at the gorge of the hartebeest" in Afrikaans. This "poort" in the Magaliesberg was a popular spot for hunters, where they cornered and shot the hartebeest. The dam was originally designed for irrigation, which is currently its primary use, as well as for domestic and industrial use. The dam is concidered to be in a hypereutrophic state since the early 1970s. Mismanagement of waste water treatment from urban zones within the Hartbeespoort Dam catchment area is largely to blame, having distorted the food web with over 280 tons of phosphate and nitrate deposits.
Kosmos is a village in the North West Province of South Africa. It is situated on the western bank of the Hartbeespoort Dam.
The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway is a cable car transportation system offering visitors a five-minute ride to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. It is one of Cape Town's most popular tourist attractions with approximately one million people a year using the Cableway. In January 2019, the Cableway welcomed its 28 millionth visitor.
The N4 is a national route in South Africa that runs from Skilpadshek on the Botswana border, past Rustenburg, Pretoria, eMalahleni and Mbombela, to Komatipoort on the Mozambique border. The entire route is a toll road.
The Crocodile River is a river in South Africa. At its confluence with the Marico River, the Limpopo River is formed.
Muldersdrift, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, is a picturesque rural area situated 27 km north-west of Johannesburg, between Johannesburg and the Magaliesberg mountain range. The area falls under the West Rand District Municipality, and is part of the Mogale City Local Municipality.
The Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway, originally constructed in 1973, is a 1.2 km long cableway that extends to the top of the Magaliesberg and offers panoramic views of the Magaliesberg, Hartbeespoort Dam and the surrounding area. It is situated 1 km to the north of the town of Hartbeespoort in the North West Province, and is the longest mono-cableway in Africa. In 2010 the cableway was completely revamped and modernised by Zargodox (Pty) Ltd, and officially reopened on 14 August 2010 by the then Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk. The aerial cableway is open seven days a week.
The Elephant Sanctuary Hartbeespoort Dam is an elephant sanctuary providing a safe haven and “halfway house” for African elephants. It provides fully guided interactive elephant educational programs covering elephant habits, dynamics, behavior and anatomy. The main focus of the sanctuary is to educate visitors about all aspects of elephants and elephant husbandry, with the vision to release elephants into an environment where they can be more independent. Visitors have the opportunity to touch, feed, walk trunk-in-hand with experienced guides.
Bushbabies Monkey Sanctuary is a privately owned multi-species primate rehabilitation centre situated in the foothills and gorges of the Magaliesberg mountain range, close to Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West Province of South Africa.
The R512 is a Regional Route in South Africa that connects Brits, North West with Randburg, Gauteng via the western side of Hartbeespoort. It is an alternative route to the R511 for travel between the Johannesburg Metropole and Brits.