Cities and towns

De Aar, the third largest town in the Northern Cape, is centrally located on the main railway line between Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Namibia and tarred roads to…

The historical settlements of Sydney-on-Vaal and Longlands.

The town has very strong Dutch Reformed roots, the congregations at Kuruman, Kathu and Olifantshoek having seceded from the original congregation in Dibeng.

The town was founded in 1848 as a mission station on the farm Backhouse, by the Reverend Isaac Hughes. In 1867, a group of Europeans from Griquatown signed an agreement giving them…

Named after a Scottish cleric and immigrant, Rev Colin Fraser, and a certain church elder, Meyburg, Fraserburg was founded in the West Nuweveld in 1851. In 1870 the first attorney, HWA Cooper…

In 1845, Garies sprang up on land given to the Dutch Reformed Church by the owner of the farm Goedeverwagting. Originally named after the farm, its present name, a Khoisan word…

Their leaders were Adam Kok II and Andries Waterboer. In 1813, at the instigation of Rev John Campbell, the ‘bastaards’ renamed themselves Griqua, and the place called Klaarwater became Griquatown.

Founded in 1936 and named after a former Minister of Agriculture, Groblershoop is a farming and administrative centre in the Orange River Valley, east of Upington.

Once part of the Graaff-Reinet district and known as Bo-Zeekoeirivier. As the farming community grew, a community centre was needed and, in 1854, the 8 656ha farm, Petrusvallei, was bought for 33 333 Rixdollars …

Laid out in 1934 as a town serving the northern section of the Vaalharts Irrigation Scheme, Hartswater’s growth has been nurtured by its irrigation canals and is surrounded by trees a…

Formerly a favoured holiday destination for farmers, fishermen and divers, Hondeklip Bay is separated from Springbok by 104km of gravel road, the Messelpad Pass and Soebatsfontein, a quaint village built…

A servant was told it represented hope and made an imitation from tin which was nailed to the farm entrance. In 1866 a diamond, ‘Eureka’, was found and, in 1868, on the far…