DOORNKOPDoornkop, on the farm Vlakfontein, marks the site where the invading force led by Dr Leander Starr Jameson surrendered to the Boer forces on 2 January 1896. The expedition, known as the Jameson Raid, was planned by Cecil John Rhodes, Jameson and leaders of the Uitlanders (expatriate whites) to seize the Transvaal by force. The plan called for Jameson to invade the Transvaal from Bechuanaland (modern Botswana) and to join up with the Uitlanders near Krugersdorp, from where they would continue to Pretoria to overthrow the government. Jameson assembled a 500-strong force in Pitsane (Botswana), and on the evening of 29 December 1895 he crossed into the ZAR. A planned Uitlander rising in Johannesburg never materialised, and after advancing some 250 km into the Transvaal in three days, Jameson’s force was attacked by the Boers on 1 January 1896. After being surrounded, and with a large number of his men killed or wounded, Jameson was forced to surrender. Krugersdorp now falls within the new municipal area of Mogale City, created in 2001. The name of the new municipality honours the Tswana chief, Mogale, for whom the Magaliesberg is named. Under its former name, Krugersdorp played a pivotal role in the events leading up to the War of Independence. In December 1880 a meeting was called on the farm Paardekraal where it was decided to restore the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) as it had existed before the British annexation of the territory in 1877. On 14 December, the burghers built a cairn nearly 3 m high, topped with the Vierkleur (the flag of the ZAR), to symbolise their determination to restore the independence of the republic. An obelisk was built on a platform over the cairn in 1891. During the South African War, the British removed the rocks from the Paardekraal Monument and dumped them in the Vaal River near Vereeniging in 1900. The town was established to the west and southwest of the Paardekraal Monument in 1887 and named after the ZAR President, Paul Kruger.
Noteworthy buildings include the City Hall 4, Government Buildings (1890), comprising a Magistrate’s Court and offices and the old railway station. To the west of the town lies the Krugersdorp Game Reserve, which covers about 1 500 ha. It has been stocked with about 1 000 head of game of 30 species, among them white rhino, giraffe, kudu, gemsbok, roan and sable antelope, red hartebeest, black wildebeest, springbok, impala and blesbok. For many visitors, though, the lion enclosure is the reserve’s main attraction. ROODEPOORT...developed around a mining camp established by the Struben brothers on the farm Wilgespruit following the discovery of gold there in 1884. Gold-diggers and fortune-seekers rushed in, and numerous other camps soon sprung up. Roodepoort has since developed into a large residential and industrial area. Points of interest in and around the town for those on South African holidays include the Roodepoort Museum, the Witwatersrand National Botanical Garden and the Kloofendal Nature Reserve, where the Struben brothers discovered the Confidence Reef in September 1884.
The National Railway Museum has a fascinating collection of over 100 steam, diesel and underground electric locomotives, steam cranes, steam rollers, old passenger coaches and other items from to the era of steam. Roodepoort is host to the biennial Roodepoort International Eisteddfod, at Florida Lake. Formerly a marshy area, the lake is a popular recreation area, especially with water-sport enthusiasts, while the western part is an important breeding area for a variety of waterfowl. |
