The Magaliesberg (historically also known as Macalisberg or Cashan Mountains[2]) 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 (and the Pilanesberg National Park) to form a curved prominence that intersects suburban Pretoria before it peters out some 50km (31mi) to the east, just south of Bronkhorstspruit. The highest point of the Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht, about 1,852 metres (6,076ft) 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.[3]
The Magaliesberg has ancient origins. Its composition is ascribed to successive geological processes over a very protracted history. Its quartzites, shales, chert and dolomite were deposited as sediments in an inland basin on top of a 3 billion year old Archaean Basement Complex, known as the Kaapvaal Craton. This process of sedimentation lasted for about 300 million years. About 2 billion years ago, a massive upwelling of molten magma resulted in what is now known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex. The enormous weight of this intrusion depressed the sediments that lay beneath and tilted the sediments along the edges so that the broken escarpments faced outward and upward, and the gentler dip slopes inward. During the same period, these sediments were fractured and igneous intrusions of dolerite filled the cracks. With the passage of time these intrusions eroded, especially on the dip slopes, forming deep kloofs or ravines providing rock-climbing potential to modern man. This large dog-leg-shaped area is now termed the Transvaal Basin and includes the lofty escarpment of the Transvaal Drakensberg overlooking the Lowveld in the eastern part of the country. Massive outpourings of igneous material–volcanic lava–of the much younger Karoo Supergroup later covered the Transvaal Basin, but this was subsequently eroded so that it only remains along the Transvaal Basin's southern rim.
Climate
Rain showers over the Magaliesberg mountain range at Silverton, Pretoria.
The range forms a natural barrier between the lower lying Bushveld to the north and the cooler Highveld to the south. The range receives rainfall in summer in the form of thunderstorms, with an average of 650mm (26in) annually. In winter, frost occurs frequently in the valleys on the southern side of the mountain, but almost never on the northern slopes.[citation needed]
The earliest known name for the Magaliesberg mountains is Dithaba Diloka. This is a local seTswana name in reference to the abundance of Heteropogon contortus which grows in the area. However it seems this name would have only been used by neighbouring Sotho-Tswana_peoples coming to and from the Magaliesberg mountains. Local resident Tswana tribes referred to it simply as Dithaba"The mountains".[4]
The first European explorers who came to the area recorded the mountains being called the "Cashan" or "Kashan" mountains. This was a corruption of the name of a powerful chief of the BaKwena ba Mmatau whose name was Kgwasane wa Sekano(Kgwasane, son of Sekano).[5]
In the mid-1800s the mountain range became known as Magaliesberg(lit. Mogale's mountain) after Kgosi Mogale.[6] Mogale means "sharp" or "brave" person, but is also the common word for a warrior or Tswana soldier, in Sotho bogale means "sharp" and mogale is "brave". Similarly, the mountain range to the north, near Sun City, Pilanesberg, was named after the local Bakgatla chiefs, who were called Pilane. [citation needed]
In 1822, Shaka, the leader of the Zulu Kingdom, sent his most trusted commander, Mzilikazi, to conquer the Sotho tribes of the region. After accomplishing this task, Mzilikazi decided to break away from Shaka and found his own nation, the Matabele. As he feared an attack from Shaka if he returned home, he settled in the Magaliesberg region.
On 17 January 1837, after some Voortrekkers had been attacked and killed by Mzilikazi's impis, they counter-attacked and, under the leadership of Hendrik Potgieter and Gerrit Maritz, and with the help of local Sotho-Tswana chiefdoms, drove the Matabeles north across the Limpopo River. Because the re-conquest of the region was a cooperative venture of the Boers and the Sotho-Tswana against the Matabele, the Boers and Sotho-Tswana had friendly relations at the beginning of white settlement. These friendly relations are reflected in the name of the main Boer town, Rustenburg (lit. resting town), because it seemed to them that they would not have to engage in any more fighting against African communities. The Boers initially settled south of the Magaliesberg in the Highveld, leaving the Bushveld north of the Magaliesberg mostly to their Sotho-Tswana friends and allies; according to Sarah Heckford's memoir, A Lady Trader in the Transvaal, the Boers would move into the Bushveld to visit their Sotho-Tswana neighbors during the winter. According to oral testimony by Tswana headmen recorded around the turn of the 20th century, many individual Boers formed close friendships with prominent individual Tswana headmen and chiefs, especially for the purpose of forming hunting parties to gather ivory and other products from further north. Subsequently the Boers began settling in the valleys of the Magaliesberg Range and in the Bushveld north of the Magaliesberg, and turned the region into some of the most productive farmland in South Africa, while displacing their former allies, confining them to locations and reserves.
The area saw some heavy fighting during the Second Anglo-Boer War. The Boers, being extremely familiar with the mountains, used secret pathways across the mountains to launch guerrilla attacks on the British soldiers. In response, the British forces built blockhouses on top of the mountains in order to restrict the movement of the Boer forces; ruins of these structures are still to be seen on the mountain.
Control of the Magaliesberg Mountain Range was of great importance to both the Boer and the British forces, especially the two routes between Pretoria and Rustenburg, which crossed it at Silkaatsnek and Kommandonek, respectively. As a result, many battles, such as the battles of Buffelspoort, Nooitgedacht and Olifantsnek were fought in the area.
After the war, farms in the area were reoccupied and farming was resumed, tobacco and citrus being particularly successful.
In 1923 the Hartbeespoort Dam, situated in one of the valleys of the range, was completed. It became a popular holiday and weekend destination for the inhabitants of Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the villages of Hartbeespoort and Kosmos developed as a result.
At present, the Magaliesberg area is still largely agricultural, although tourism is a rapidly growing industry in the area.
Kgaswane Mountain Reserve is a nature reserve above Rustenburg covering 4,257ha (10,520 acres) of the Magaliesberg.
Numerous smaller reserves, private and state, are to be found along the length of the range.
Tonquani Kloof, MagaliesbergRock climbing in Tonquani Kloof
After nearly a decade of lobbying and sustained efforts by a small committee of dedicated environmentalists, the Magaliesberg has been declared a World Biosphere Reserve.
The announcement was made on 9 June 2015 in Paris by the International Coordinating Council of the Programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). This is a UNESCO programme that aims to build a supportive and sustainable relationship between people and their environments. In effect, this means a specific focus on safeguarding natural ecosystems through innovative approaches to economic development.
"We are delighted with this final acknowledgement of the unique nature of the Magaliesberg and the powerful contribution it is making to our country, to the ecosystem services in Gauteng and the North West and the communities it nurtures over an extensive area," said Paul Fatti, chair of the Magaliesberg Biosphere Initiative Group (MBIG) that has been lobbying authorities since 2007 to support the establishment of the biosphere.[citation needed]
Vincent Carruthers, past chair of MBIG and renowned author of The Magaliesberg, the most authoritative study of the mountain range, said that this announcement was the culmination of a campaign that began in 2006. "I'm most grateful there is now international recognition of this great mountain range that has witnessed the whole span of life, from its very origins," he said. "The Magaliesberg is almost 100 times older than Mount Everest and half the age of the earth, a unique treasure for us in this part of Africa."[citation needed]
Rock climbing
The Magaliesberg mountains offer excellent rock climbing opportunities, spread across its many kloofs and escarpments. The climbing is mostly traditional, with a small number of sport climbing venues and hundreds of routes across a wide range of grades. The relatively mild climate allows year-round climbing.
MzilikaziMoselekatse, Khumalo was a Southern African king who founded the Ndebele Kingdom now called Matebeleland which is now part of Zimbabwe. His name means "the great river of blood". He was born the son of Mashobane kaMangethe near Mkuze, Zululand, and died at Ingama, Matabeleland. Many consider him to be the greatest Southern African military leader after the Zulu king, Shaka. In his autobiography, David Livingstone referred to Mzilikazi as the second most impressive leader he encountered on the African continent.
Magaliesburg is a small town situated below the Witwatersrand mountain range in Gauteng, South Africa. The Magaliesberg mountain range is north and visible from town, hence the name "Magaliesburg". The mountains themselves are named after Kgosi Môgale Wa Môgale, a MoTswana chief of the BaPô ba Mogale clan. Burg is the Afrikaans name for Town and berg means mountain.
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 Bushveld is a sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. The ecoregion straddles the Tropic of Capricorn and constitutes the southern part of the Zambezian region. It encompasses most of Limpopo and a small part of North West in South Africa, the Central and North-East Districts of Botswana and the Matabeleland South and part of Matabeleland North provinces of Zimbabwe. The Kruger National Park has a number of 'Bushveld' camps, but these are strictly speaking in the lowveld, as these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Although their limits are somewhat blurred, lowveld is generally restricted to the more easterly parts of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The Pilanesberg National Park is located north of Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa. The park borders on the Sun City entertainment complex. It is administered by the North West Parks and Tourism Board.
The Northern Ndebele people are a Nguni ethnic group native to Southern Africa. Significant populations of native speakers of the Northern Ndebele language (siNdebele) are found in Zimbabwe. There is another Northern Ndebele group found in the Limpopo province of South Africa which is not related to those in Zimbabwe but rather is related to the Southern Ndebele ethnic group through being the descendants of same ancestral kings Musi kaMhlanga and Ndebele KaMabhudu. The Northern Ndebele people of South Africa are concentrated in the towns of Polokwane, Zebediela, Mokopane and Hamanskraal.
The Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) is the largest layered igneous intrusion within the Earth's crust. It has been tilted and eroded forming the outcrops around what appears to be the edge of a great geological basin: the Transvaal Basin. It is approximately 2 billion years old and is divided into four different limbs: the northern, southern, eastern, and western limbs. The Bushveld Complex comprises the Rustenburg Layered suite, the Lebowa Granites and the Rooiberg Felsics, that are overlain by the Karoo sediments. The site was first publicised around 1897 by Gustaaf Molengraaff who found the native South African tribes residing in and around the area.
Boekenhoutfontein was the farm of Paul Kruger, a 19th-century Boer resistance leader and president of the Transvaal Republic. It is located in Rustenburg, North West Province, South Africa.
Thaba 'Nchu, also known as Blesberg, is a town in Free State, South Africa, 63 km east of Bloemfontein and 17 km east of Botshabelo. The population is largely made up of Tswana and Sotho people. The town was settled in December 1833 and officially established in 1873. The town grew larger following the 1913 Natives' Land Act that declared the area a homeland for the Tswana people.
The Waterberg is a mountainous massif of approximately 654,033 hectare in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. The average height of the mountain range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is located just north of the mountain range. The extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion to yield diverse bluff and butte landform. The ecosystem can be characterised as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld. Within the Waterberg there are archaeological finds dating to the Stone Age, and nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of humans.
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The Pedi or Bapedi, also known as the Sotho, Basotho, Northern Sotho, Basotho ba Lebowa, Transvaal Sotho, Marota, or Bamaroteng are a Sotho-Tswana ethnic group that speak Pedi or Sepedi, which is one of the 12 official languages in South Africa. They are primarily situated in Limpopo, Gauteng and northern Mpumalanga.
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Mthwakazi is the traditional name of the proto-Ndebele people and Ndebele kingdom and is in the area of today's Zimbabwe. Mthwakazi is widely used to refer to inhabitants of Matebeleland Province in Zimbabwe.
BAPO 2 is an ethnic rural village in the North West province of South Africa.
The Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve is located in South Africa between the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg to the east and Rustenburg to the west. The reserve lies at the interface of two great African biomes — the Central Grassland Plateaux and the sub-Saharan savannah — and the remnants of a third biome, the Afro‐montane forest. The rich biodiversity includes floral species such as Aloe peglerae and Frithia pulchra, and faunal species such as the forest shrew, sable antelope and 443 bird species representing 46.6% of total bird species in the southern African sub-region.
Kgaswane Mountain Reserve is a nature reserve of 5,300 hectares consisting of veld and mountains run by the North West Parks and Tourism Board. It is located 5 km (3.1 mi) south-west of Rustenburg on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg, inside of the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve and alongside the western portion of the Magaliesberg Protected Natural Environment. Kgaswane is home to many species of flora and bird life and large and small mammals, and has been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 2019. The reserve has a number of camp sites, hikes and trails.
The House of Khumalo is the reigning royal Family of the former Mthwakazi Kingdom. The Mthwakazi Kingdom was founded in 1823 by Mzilikazi kaMatshobana. While the Mthwakazi Kingdom ended in 1894 with the First Matabele War, The house has endured to the present day.
Mogale wa Mogale was a Sotho-Tswana Kgosi of the BaPo ba Mogale in South Africa. Mogale reigned for almost 50 years and through his prowess as both a military leader and strategic diplomat ended local conflicts with neighbouring tribes and established a foothold for the BaPo ba Mogale to thrive. Mogale City Local Municipality in the West Rand District of Gauteng was named after him. The Magaliesberg Mountains, town of Magaliesburg and the Magalies River all bear his name.
The Magaliesberg Protected Natural Environment is one of two core zones found within the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve along the Magaliesberg mountain range in South Africa, from Rusternberg to Pretoria.
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