Ventersdorp

Ventersdorp is a town of 4,200 in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. It is the seat of Ventersdorp Local Municipality.

Ventersdorp
Ventersdorp
Ventersdorp
Coordinates: 26°19′S 26°49′E
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceNorth West
DistrictDr Kenneth Kaunda
MunicipalityJB Marks
Established1866
Area
 • Total53.88 km2 (20.80 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[1]
 • Total4,204
 • Density78/km2 (200/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
 • Black African51.4%
 • Coloured5.5%
 • Indian/Asian2.3%
 • White40.2%
 • Other0.5%
First languages (2011)
 • Afrikaans46.6%
 • Tswana40.5%
 • English4.3%
 • Xhosa2.8%
 • Other5.8%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)
2710
PO box
2710
Area code018

History

The town grew around a Dutch Reformed Church that was established in 1866.[2][3] It was named after Johannes Venter who owned the farm Roodepoort and the land the church was built on.[2][4] It was proclaimed as a town in June 1887.[4]

The Afrikaner nationalist Eugène Terre'Blanche was born in Ventersdorp, he is a well known racist and was killed by his black staff when they were not paid on time [5][6] and the town is the base of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), the far-right white separatist political organisation and former paramilitary group that Terre'Blanche founded.

Ventersdorp is centrally located, making it easier to access more prominent urban towns such as Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Rustenburg. The Tshing township has a diamond mine nearby that was owned by a town councillor in the early 1990s. Tshing Location has one high school: Thuto Boswa High School.

Racial segregation

The township of Tshing houses most of the town's blacks and coloureds. The township's secondary school, with an enrolment of 1,000, has no white students or staff.[7]

In contrast, the Ventersdorp High School has had non-white students attending since 1995. They are mostly Afrikaans-speaking coloured residents of the smaller township Toevlug.

See also

References
  1. "Main Place Ventersdorp". Census 2011.
  2. "www.routes.co.za/nw/ventersdorp".
  3. "www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/southern/ventersdorp".
  4. Raper, Peter E.; Moller, Lucie A.; du Plessis, Theodorus L. (2014). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. p. 1412. ISBN 9781868425501.
  5. "Eugene Terre'Blanche obituary". The Guardian. April 4, 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  6. "Eugene Terreblanche killed in South Africa". BBC News. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
  7. Broomfield, Nicholas, and Riete Oord. 2006. His big white self revisited. [London]: Metrodome Distribution.

External sources
  • The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife, a Nick Broomfield film (1991)
  • His Big White Self, a Nick Broomfield film (2006)
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