Heidelberg, Gauteng

Heidelberg is a town with 35,500 inhabitants in the Gauteng province of South Africa, some 50 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg, close to the Mpumalanga border. It sits at the eastern end of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, next to the N3 highway connecting Johannesburg and Durban.

Heidelberg
Heidelberg Town Hall
Heidelberg Town Hall
Heidelberg is located in Gauteng
Heidelberg
Heidelberg
Heidelberg is located in South Africa
Heidelberg
Heidelberg
Heidelberg is located in Africa
Heidelberg
Heidelberg
Coordinates: 26°30′02″S 28°21′30″E
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceGauteng
DistrictSedibeng
MunicipalityLesedi
Established1886[1]
Area
[2]
 • Total40.26 km2 (15.54 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[2]
 • Total35,563
 • Density880/km2 (2,300/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
[2]
 • Black African56.8%
 • Coloured1.8%
 • Indian/Asian3.2%
 • White37.3%
 • Other1.0%
First languages (2011)
[2]
 • Afrikaans37.6%
 • Zulu25.0%
 • Sotho18.4%
 • English8.6%
 • Other10.4%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)
1441
PO box
1438
Area code016

History

The area was once the kraal of the Bakwena,[3] until colonization and the Basotho wars.

Modern Heidelberg was founded in 1862 as a trading station by a German, Heinrich Julius Ueckermann. A town was laid out around the store and named after Ueckermann's alma mater. In 1866, the District of Heidelberg was created from the eastern portion of the Potchefstroom district with its own landdrost (magistrate), having been laid out as a churchplace in 1865.[4]: 237 

100th anniversary of Susan, a class 12AR locomotive built in 1919 to work on the coal mines[5]

Heidelberg has played an important part in South African history, acting as a capital for the Boer republic during the war with Great Britain under the Triumvirate of Paul Kruger, P.J. Joubert and M.W. Pretorius, from 1880 to 1883. In 1885, the Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered, and the office of the Mining Commissioner was established there.

Heidelberg developed as a typical rural Victorian town. Many buildings dating back to the period between 1890 and 1910 have been preserved, including the home of A.G. Visser, a well-loved medical doctor and famous Afrikaans poet, which can still be seen situated close to the main road through town. Other historical landmarks in the town includes Visser's bust and the Klipkerk. The British built a concentration camp here during the Second Boer War to house Boer women and children; a monument to their memory, and to those of the black women and children who also died during the war, was erected in the main cemetery in the late 1990s by the current ANC-led municipality.

The far right secessionist political organisation (and former paramilitary group) the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) was founded by the late white supremacist and white separatist leader Eugène Terre'Blanche in the Heidelberg suburb of Rensburg. Its headquarters are now in Terre'Blanche's hometown of Ventersdorp.

The "Jo'burg to Sea" mountain bike stage race starts in Heidelberg. The "Outdoor X" show is held just outside Heidelberg on the Malonjeni Guest Farm.

Notable people

References
  1. Robson, Linda Gillian (2011). "Annexure A" (PDF). The Royal Engineers and settlement planning in the Cape Colony 1806–1872: Approach, methodology and impact (PhD thesis). University of Pretoria. pp. xlv–lii. hdl:2263/26503.
  2. "Main Place Heidelberg". Census 2011.
  3. Eldredge, Elizabeth A. (2015). Kingdoms and chiefdoms of southeastern Africa: oral traditions and history, 1400-1830. Rochester, NY. ISBN 978-1-58046-876-3. OCLC 918941423.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Theal, George McCall (2010). History of South Africa Since September 1795. Cambridge University Press. p. 534. ISBN 9781108023665.
  5. Reefsteamers celebrates Susan the Steam Train's 100th Birthday!
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