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 |
Area | |
• Total | 125.89 km2 (48.61 sq mi) |
Population (2011) [1] | |
• 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. [2]
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:
Van Gaalens Cheese Farm produces cheese. They give tours. Van Gaalens is famous for its mountain bike trails and has held the Nissan Mountain Bike series. More recently it has also hosted some stages of the Warrior Races.
Greenleaves is a wedding venue that has a coffee shop and a hairdresser. Greenleaves holds the annual HAWS (Hartbeespoort Animal Welfare Society) ball in November.
HAWS is situated on the Van Der Hoff road and welcomes visitors. Many schools have outings here and children are encouraged to pet the animals, clean cages and assist where possible. HAWS may provide letters of social community service should children require them. They have fund-raising events.
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. [4]
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 city in South Africa in terms of airborne particulates, with air pollution levels roughly twice that of Vereeniging, a heavily industrialised city south of Johannesburg. [5]
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.
Brits is a town in the North West Province of South Africa. It is situated in a fertile citrus, vegetable and grain-producing area that is irrigated by the waters of the Hartbeespoort Dam. It is close to the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, which includes Pretoria, and it has the same dialling code as Pretoria. In addition to being a centre for agriculture, the city is home to several heavy industries. A factory of the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo produced cars for the domestic market and export to Asia from 1974 to 1985. The city also plays an important role in the South African mining industry: 94% of South Africa's platinum comes from the Rustenburg and Brits districts, which together produce more platinum than any other single area in the world. In addition, there is a large vanadium mine in the district.
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.
Wakkerstroom is the second oldest town in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The town is on the KwaZulu-Natal border, 27 km east of Volksrust and 56 km south-east of Amersfoort.
Standerton is a large commercial and agricultural town lying on the banks of the Vaal River in Mpumalanga, South Africa, which specialises in cattle, dairy, maize and poultry farming. The town was established in 1876 and named after Boer leader Commandant A. H. Stander. During the First Boer War a British garrison in the town was besieged by the Boers for three months. General Jan Smuts won this seat during elections and went on to assist in setting up the League of Nations. Standerton is the seat of the Lekwa Local Municipality.
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.
A canned hunt is a trophy hunt which is not "fair chase", typically by having game animals kept in a confined area such as in a fenced ranch to prevent the animals' escape and make tracking easier for the hunter, in order to increase the likelihood of the hunter obtaining a kill. The term has been used for driven grouse shooting, in which large areas of Britain are farmed for red grouse. According to WordNet, a canned hunt is a "hunt for animals that have been raised on game ranches until they are mature enough to be killed for trophy collections."
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 Witbank in Mpumalanga province via Mooinooi, Hartbeespoort, Pretoria and Bronkhorstspruit. There is also a 50km section in Mpumalanga province connecting Middelburg and Wonderfontein.
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 has suffered from a hypertrophic 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 banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam.
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 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.
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.
Petrus Johannes Liebenberg was a Boer general in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).