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Klerksdorp originated in the late 1830s when the first Voortrekkers
settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit (“ clear stream”) which
flows through the town. Prominent among the first settlers was C M
du Plooy who appropriated a farm of some 16 000 ha and called it
Elandsheuwel( “ hill of the eland “). Other trekkers joined him
there and, in exchange for help with the construction of a dam and
irrigation canal were granted portions of the farm as well as
communal grazing rights on the rest of the land. This collection of
smallholdings was later given the name of Klerksdorp in honor of the
first landdrost ( magistrate ) of the area, Jacob de Clerq.
The tranquility of this rural paradise was shattered in August 1886
when A P Roos discovered gold on the farm Rietkuil ( “ pool of reeds
“ ) and on the village ‘s commonage. In the same year, what turned
out to be the world’s richest gold reef was discovered on the
Witwatersrand about 160 km to the east. The world was in the grip of
gold fever and the inevitable rush hit Klerksdorp as well. The 4 000
would be diggers who descended on the village were asked to draw
lots for mining rights on public land.
A shanty town sprang up virtually
overnight on the other bank of Schoonspruit and within three years
of the first discovery the “ new town” boasted about 70 taverns and
a stock exchange of its own. Before the latter building was put up ,
“high change” was called at the Exchange Hotel. The diggers of
Klerksdorp soon made the same sad discovery as those on the
Witwatersrand : the gold was there but it demanded expensive and
sophisticated equipment to recover. One by one the Klerksdorp mining
companies folded and the diggers moved to tile Witwatersrandsand
elsewhere.
The railway from Krugersdorp reached Klerksdorp on 3 August 1897 and
that from Kimberley in 1906. Today Klerksdorp is the hub of the gold
and uranium mining industry of the Far West Rand.
The 3 500 km˛ district is also known for its fine herds of Sussex
cattle, the town being the headquarters of the South African Sussex
Cattle Breeders Association.
The most important crops are maize, sorghum, groundnuts and
sunflower seed. Klerksdorp boasts the largest maize silo in the
country as well as the largest agricultural co-operative in the
southern hemisphere, Senwes Cooperative
ORKNEY
 This
mining town on the Vaal River, immortalized in the Afrikaans
television comedy series Orkney Snork Nie, was proclaimed on 20
March 1940 but its history goes back to the gold rush days of the
19th century.
One of the pioneer diggers drawn to the Western Transvaal by the
gold discoveries of the late 1880s was Simon Fraser, whose claim was
on the farm Witkoppies (white hills ).
Fraser hailed from the Orkney Island off the north coast of Scotland
and called his mine Orkney. Hence the name of the town.
STILFONTEIN
Like Orkney, Stilfontein has a Scottish connection in its origins.
Charles Scott who hailed from Strathmore country in Scotland,
acquired a farm in these parts and called it Strathvaal. In 1888 he
discovered the outcrop of a gold reef on this farm and named it
Strathmore Reef. Upon Charles’s death, his son Jack continued the
search and acquired an option on the farm Stilfontein (“ quiet
spring”) nearby.
Subsequent drilling operations confirmed the presence of the reef
which gave very good assay results.
In 1949 Stilfontein Gold Mining Company was registered and a town
laid out. Production started in 1952. Today the town is home to men
and women employed on four important mines in the area –Stilfontein,
Hartebeesfontein, Zandpan and Buffelsfontein.
Because it is relatively young, the town ‘s layout is based on
modern town-planning methods concepts and incorporates several
parks, gardens and fountains. The four mines jointly developed the
Strathvaal Recreation Club.
The Khuma suburb has its origin as the farm “Wildebeespan”. With the
foundation/ erection of Scott Shaft, would-be employees rushed from
all over the country to the Khuma suburb. Education of the children
took place on an informal basis. The first school in the Khuma
suburb was known as “Wildebeespan Bantoeskool” . The school was
housed in better buildings and was from then on known as Tukisang
Primary School. The name Khuma means “riches”.
HARTEBEESFONTEIN
There are two stories, both related to the early Voortrekkers, to
account for the origins of this town 30 km north-west of Klerksdorp
– Ottosdal branch railway line. According to one story, two men by
the name of De Clerq went hunting, wounded a Hartebees and found it
dead at a spring which they then named Hartebeesfontein.
The second story goes that when in 1837 Voortrekker leader Hendrik
Potgieter led a punitive expedition against Mzilikazi’s impis, some
of his men were left behind in a laager near here. Bored, one of the
men went hunting. He wounded a Hartebeest gave chase and came upon a
bubbling spring. After the campaign had ended he returned to the
area where he acquired a farm which he named Hartebeesfontein.
In the Anglo-Boer War Hartebeesfontein was the scene of a battle
between a Boer commando and Lord Methuen’s forces on 18 February
1901. Prior to this and later the farm changed hands several times.
Eventually owner H F Moller subdivided the land for a village which
was proclaimed a town.
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