Day of Reconciliation
The Day of Reconciliation is a public holiday in South Africa held annually on 16 December. The holiday came into effect in 1995 after the end of apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and national unity for the country; the date was chosen because it was significant to both African cultures. The government chose a meaningful date for both ethnic groups because they recognize the need for racial harmony; the celebration of the Day of Reconciliation can take the form of remembering past history, recognizing veteran's contributions and other festivities. The origins of the celebration for the Afrikaners goes back to the Day of the Vow, celebrated on 16 December 1864 in commemoration of the Voortrekker victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River. For African people, the date has been significant as one of both peaceful protests against racial injustice and of the founding of the more militant Umkhonto we Sizwe by the African National Congress on 16 December 1961. Nelson Mandela and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission chose a day, special to both ethnic groups in the country in order to work on healing the damage done by Apartheid.
The first time the Day of Reconciliation was celebrated as a public holiday was in 1995. The new government chose to represent national unity by choosing a date that had significance for "both the Afrikaner and liberation struggle traditions". On Day of Reconciliation, cultural groups participate in parades and various festivities take place throughout the country. On Day of Reconciliation 2013, a statue of Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, was unveiled in Pretoria. During the celebration in 2009, President Jacob Zuma honored forgotten heroes of South Africa, including inscribing around 100 dead veteran's names on the Wall of Names at Freedom Park. In 2008, the first victim of "necklacing," Maki Skosana, was remembered. For the celebration in 2001, the African National Congress remembered the police raid that led to the Rivonia trial; some of the communities take part in a walk which serve as a memorial to Mandela. Other parts of South Africa have chosen to emphasize their need for racial harmony in their communities.
Each year has had a different theme. For example: 2013: Nation Building, Social Cohesion, Reconciliation. 2014: Social Cohesion and National Unity in the 20 Years of Democracy. 2015: Bridging the Divide: Building a common South African nationhood towards a national development state. For Afrikaners, 16 December was commemorated as the Day of the Vow known as Day of the Covenant or Dingaan's dag; the Day of the Vow was a religious holiday commemorating the Voortrekker victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838, is still celebrated by some Afrikaners. On that day, 470 Voortrekkers were attacked in an early morning battle led by Dingane's generals; the Voortrekkers defeated the Zulus who numbered in the 10-thousands and during the battle, 3,000 Zulu warriors were killed. The event became a "rallying point for the development of Afrikaner nationalism and identity."The religious significance of the event, where it is called Day of the Covenant or Day of the Vow, involves the belief that the Voortrekker victory of the Zulus was ordained by the God of Christianity.
The General Synod of the Afrikaners' Natal Churches chose 16 December as "an ecclesiastical day of thanksgiving by all its congregations" in 1864. In 1894, Dingane's Day was declared a public holiday by the Government of the Free State. During the Apartheid era, 16 December continued to be celebrated as the Day of the Vow and the Day of the Covenant. In 1952, Dingane's Day was changed to Day of the Covenant and in 1980 was changed to The Day of the Vow; the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria was erected on 16 December 1949 to commemorate Dingane's Day. The last year Afrikaners celebrated Day of the Vow was in 1994; the transition from Day of the Vow to Day of Reconciliation was viewed with mixed emotions for Afrikaners. Africans who did not have the right to vote after the South African War protested racial discrimination on 16 December 1910. Other protests against the government dealing with racial discrimination continued to be held on 16 December. In 1929, 1930 and 1934, anti-pass demonstrations were held by the Communist Party of South Africa on that day.
The All African Convention was held during the same time in 1935, covering dates 15 December through 18 December. Much when efforts of passive protest and resistance against apartheid had been unsuccessful, the African National Congress decided to form a military or armed group; the decision to move to armed resistance happened. Nelson Mandela believed that non-violent resistance was not working to stop Apartheid, advocated acts of sabotage; the date of 16 December is the anniversary of the 1961 founding of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. On that day, Umkhonto we Sizwe enacted its "first acts of sabotage" which included bomb blasts against government buildings in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban. On 16 December 1961, the Umkhonto we Sizwe distributed leaflets describing how the group "will carry on the struggle for freedom and democracy by new methods, which are necessary to complement the actions of the established national liberation organsations." When Apartheid ended, it was decided to keep 16 December as a public holiday, but to infuse it "with the purpose of fostering reconciliation and national unity."
It was established by the government in 1994. Nelson Mandela was part of the group of politicians. On 16 December 1995, the first celebration took place
Pound sterling
The pound sterling known as the pound and less referred to as sterling, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling have currencies called the pound. Sterling is the third most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those two currencies and the Chinese yuan, it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights. Sterling is the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves; the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man produce their own local issues of sterling which are considered equivalent to UK sterling in their respective regions. The pound sterling is used in Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Saint Helena and Ascension Island in Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha; the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Banknotes issued by other jurisdictions are not regulated by the Bank of England. The full official name pound sterling, is used in formal contexts and when it is necessary to distinguish the United Kingdom currency from other currencies with the same name. Otherwise the term pound is used; the currency name is sometimes abbreviated to just sterling in the wholesale financial markets, but not when referring to specific amounts. The abbreviations "ster." and "stg." are sometimes used. The term "British pound" is sometimes incorrectly used in less formal contexts, it is not an official name of the currency; the exchange rate of the pound sterling against the US dollar is referred to as "cable" in the wholesale foreign exchange markets. The origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the GBP/USD exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex traders of GBP/USD are sometimes referred to as "cable dealers". GBP/USD is now the only currency pair with its own name in the foreign exchange markets, after IEP/USD, known as "wire" in the forward FX markets, no longer exists after the Irish Pound was replaced by the euro in 1999.
There is apparent convergence of opinion regarding the origin of the term "pound sterling", toward its derivation from the name of a small Norman silver coin, away from its association with Easterlings or other etymologies. Hence, the Oxford English Dictionary state that the "most plausible" etymology is derivation from the Old English steorra for "star" with the added diminutive suffix "-ling", to mean "little star" and to refer to a silver penny of the English Normans; as another established source notes, the compound expression was derived: However, the perceived narrow window of the issuance of this coin, the fact that coin designs changed in the period in question, led Philip Grierson to reject this in favour of a more complex theory. Another argument that the Hanseatic League was the origin for both the origin of its definition and manufacture, in its name is that the German name for the Baltic is "Ost See", or "East Sea", from this the Baltic merchants were called "Osterlings", or "Easterlings".
In 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was called "Easterlings Hall", or Esterlingeshalle. Because the League's money was not debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the "Easterlings", contracted to "'sterling". For further discussion of the etymology of "sterling", see sterling silver; the currency sign for the pound is £, written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is sometimes seen. This symbol derives from medieval Latin documents; the ISO 4217 currency code is GBP, formed from "GB", the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the United Kingdom, the first letter of "pound". It does not stand for "Great Britain Pound" or "Great British Pound"; the abbreviation "UKP" is used but this is non-standard because the ISO 3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes: GGP, JEP and IMP. Stocks are traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices.
A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, singular and plural, except in the common phrase "quids in!". The term may have come via Italian immigrants from "scudo", the name for a number of coins used in Italy until the 19th century.
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city in the northern part of Gauteng province in South Africa. It straddles the Apies River and has spread eastwards into the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountains, it is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the administrative branch of government, of foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria has a reputation for being an academic city with three universities, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Human Sciences Research Council; the city hosts the National Research Foundation and the South African Bureau of Standards making the city a hub for research. Pretoria is the central part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities including Centurion and Soshanguve. There have been proposals to change the name of Pretoria itself to Tshwane, the proposed name change has caused some public controversy. Pretoria is named after the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius, within South Africa sometimes called the "Jacaranda City" due to the thousands of jacaranda trees planted in its streets and gardens.
Pretoria was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers, who named it after his father Andries Pretorius and chose a spot on the banks of the "Apies rivier" to be the new capital of the South African Republic. The elder Pretorius had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over Dingane and the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River; the elder Pretorius negotiated the Sand River Convention, in which the UK acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal. It became the capital of the South African Republic on 1 May 1860; the founding of Pretoria as the capital of the South African Republic can be seen as marking the end of the Boers' settlement movements of the Great Trek. During the First Boer War, the city was besieged by Republican forces in December 1880 and March 1881; the peace treaty which ended the war was signed in Pretoria on 3 August 1881 at the Pretoria Convention. The Second Boer War resulted in the end of the Transvaal Republic and start of British hegemony in South Africa.
The city surrendered to British forces under Frederick Roberts on 5 June 1900 and the conflict was ended in Pretoria with the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902 at Melrose House. The Pretoria Forts were built for the defence of the city just prior to the Second Boer War. Though some of these forts are today in ruins, a number of them have been preserved as national monuments; the Boer Republics of the ZAR and the Orange River Colony were united with the Cape Colony and Natal Colony in 1910 to become the Union of South Africa. Pretoria became the administrative capital of the whole of South Africa, with Cape Town the legislative capital and Bloemfontein served as the judicial capital. Between 1910 and 1994, the city was the capital of the province of Transvaal. On 14 October 1931, Pretoria achieved official city status; when South Africa became a republic in 1961, Pretoria remained its administrative capital. Pretoria is situated 55 km north-northeast of Johannesburg in the northeast of South Africa, in a transitional belt between the plateau of the Highveld to the south and the lower-lying Bushveld to the north.
It lies at an altitude of about 1,339 m above sea level, in a warm, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range. Pretoria has a humid subtropical climate with long hot rainy summers and short cool to cold, dry winters; the city experiences the typical winters of South Africa with cold, clear nights and mild to moderately warm days. Although the average lows during winter are mild, it can get cold due to the clear skies, with nighttime low temperatures in recent years in the range of 2 to −5 °C; the average annual temperature is 18.7 °C. This is rather high, considering the city's high altitude of about 1,339 metres, is due to its sheltered valley position, which acts as a heat trap and cuts it off from cool southerly and south-easterly air masses for much of the year. Rain is chiefly concentrated in the summer months, with drought conditions prevailing over the winter months, when frosts may be sharp. Snowfall is an rare event. During a nationwide heatwave in November 2011, Pretoria experienced temperatures that reached 39 °C, unusual for that time of the year.
Similar record-breaking extreme heat events occurred in January 2013, when Pretoria experienced temperatures exceeding 37 °C on several days. The year 2014 was one of the wettest on record for the city. A total of 914 mm fell up with 220 mm recorded in this month alone. In 2015 Pretoria saw its worst drought since 1982. January 2016 saw Pretoria reach a new record high of 44 °C on 7 January 2016. Depending on the extent of the area understood to constitute "Pretoria", the population ranges from 700,000 to 2.95 million. The main languages spoken in Pretoria are Sepedi, Setswana, Xitsonga and English; the city of Pretoria has the largest white population in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since its founding it has been a major Afrikaner population centre
Day of the Vow
The Day of the Vow was a religious public holiday in South Africa. It is an important holiday for Afrikaners, originating from the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838. Called Dingane's Day, 16 December was made an annual national holiday in 1910, before being renamed Day of the Vow in 1982. In 1994, after the end of Apartheid, it was replaced by the Day of Reconciliation, an annual holiday on 16 December; the day of the Vow traces its origin as an annual religious holiday to The Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838. The besieged Voortrekkers took a public vow together before the battle, led by Sarel Cilliers. In return for God's help in obtaining victory, they promised to build a church and forever honour this day as a holy day of God, they vowed that their descendants would keep the day as a holy Sabbath. During the battle a group of about 470 Voortrekkers defeated a force of about 20,000 Zulu. Three Voortrekkers were wounded, some 3,000 Zulu warriors died in the battle. Two of the earlier names given to the day stem from this prayer.
Known as the Day of the Vow, the commemoration was renamed from the Day of the Covenant in 1982. Afrikaners colloquially referred to it as Dingaansdag, a reference to the Zulu ruler of the defeated attackers. No verbatim record of the vow exists; the version considered to be the original vow is in fact W. E. G. Louw's ca. 1962 translation into Afrikaans of G. B. A. Gerdener's reconstruction of the vow in his 1919 biography of Sarel Cilliers; the wording of the Vow is: Afrikaans: Hier staan ons voor die Heilige God van Hemel en aarde om ʼn gelofte aan Hom te doen, dat, as Hy ons sal beskerm en ons vyand in ons hand sal gee, ons die dag en datum elke jaar as ʼn dankdag soos ʼn Sabbat sal deurbring. Want die. English: We stand here before the Holy God of heaven and earth, to make a vow to Him that, if He will protect us and give our enemy into our hand, we shall keep this day and date every year as a day of thanksgiving like a sabbath, that we shall build a house to His honour wherever it should please Him, that we will tell our children that they should share in that with us in memory for future generations.
For the honour of His name will be glorified by giving Him the honour for the victory. The official version of the event is that a public vow was taken by a Trekker commando on 16 December 1838 at Ncome River which bound future descendants of the Afrikaner to commemorate the day as a religious holiday in the case of victory over the Zulu. In 1841 the victorious Trekkers built The Church of the Vow at Pietermaritzburg, passed the obligation to keep the vow on to their descendants; as the original vow was never recorded in verbatim form, descriptions come from the diary of Jan Bantjes. A participant in the battle, Dewald Pretorius, wrote his recollections in 1862, interpreting the vow as including the building of churches and schools. Jan B. Bantjes, Pretorius' secretary, indicates that the initial promise was to build a House in return for victory, he notes that Pretorius called everyone together, asked them to pray for God's help. Bantjes writes that Pretorius told the assembly that he wanted to make a vow, "if everyone would agree".
Bantjes does not say. The fractious nature of the Boers dictated that the raiding party held their own prayers in the tents of various leading men. Pretorius is quoted as wanting to have a book written to make known what God had done to "our last descendants". Pretorius in his 1838 dispatch mentions a vow in connection with the building of a church, but not that it would be binding for future generations. We here have decided among ourselves...to make known the day of our victory...among the whole of our generation, that we want to devote it to God, to celebrate with thanksgiving, just as we...promised in public prayer Contrary to Pretorius, in agreement with Bantjes, Cilliers in 1870 recalled a promise, not a vow, to commemorate the day and to tell the story to future generations. Accordingly, they would remember: the day and date, every year as a commemoration and a day of thanksgiving, as though a Sabbath...and that we will tell it to our children, that they should share in it with us, for the remembrance of our future generations Cilliers writes that those who objected were given the option to leave.
At least two persons declined to participate in the vow. Scholars disagree about whether the accompanying English servants complied; this seems to confirm. Mackenzie claims. Up to the 1970s the received version of events was questioned, but since scholars have questioned every aspect, they debate whether a vow was taken and, if so, what its wording was. Some argue that the vow occurred on the day of the battle, others point to 9 December. Whether Andries Pretorius or Sarel Cilliers led the assembly has been debated; the location at which the vow was taken has produced diverging opi
Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality, its Zulu name umGungundlovu is the name used for the district municipality. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in English and Zulu alike, informally abbreviated to PMB, it is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of Umgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to the local and provincial governments being located here, it is home to many schools and tertiary education institutions, including a campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It had a population of 228,549 in 1991; the city was founded by the Voortrekkers, following the defeat of Dingane at the Battle of Blood River, was the capital of the short-lived Boer republic, Natalia. Britain took over Pietermaritzburg in 1843 and it became the seat of the Natal Colony's administration with the first lieutenant-governor, Martin West, making it his home.
Fort Napier, named after the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Thomas Napier, was built to house a garrison. In 1893, Natal received responsibility for their own government and an assembly building was built along with the city hall. On 7 June 1893, while Mahatma Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a first-class carriage. Despite Gandhi having a first-class ticket, he was ordered by the conductor to move to the van compartment at the end of the train: he refused, he was removed from the train at Pietermaritzburg. Shivering through the winter night in the waiting room of the station, Gandhi made the momentous decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination against Indians there. Out of that struggle emerged his unique version of Satyagraha. Today, a bronze statue of Gandhi stands in the city centre. In 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, Natal became a province of the Union, Pietermaritzburg remained the capital.
During apartheid, the city was segregated into various sections. 90% of the Indian population was moved to the suburb of Northdale while most of its Zulu inhabitants were moved to the neighbouring township of Edendale and white inhabitants were moved out of those areas. There exist two interpretations about the origin of the city's name. One is that it was named after Piet Gert Maritz, two Voortrekker leaders; the other is that it was named after Piet Retief alone, since his full name was Pieter Maurits Retief. In this interpretation the original name was "Pieter Maurits Burg" transliterated to the current name. Retief in fact never reached Pietermaritzburg and was killed by Dingane, successor to Shaka, king of the Zulus. Maritz died of illness on 23 September 1838 near the present-day town of Estcourt, some hundreds of kilometres northwest of Pietermaritzburg; this was after the battle with the Zulus at Bloukranz, Maritz did not reach the Pietermaritzburg area. In 1938, the city announced that the second element Maritz should honour Gert Maritz.
At the time of the rise of the Zulu Empire, the site, to become Pietermaritzburg was called Umgungundlovu. This is popularly translated from the Zulu as "Place of the Elephant", although it could be translated to mean "The elephant wins". Umgungundlovu is thus thought to be the site of some Zulu king's victory since "Elephant" is a name traditionally taken by the Zulu monarch. Legend has it that Shaka had his warriors hunt elephant there to sell the ivory to English traders at Durban. Today, the town is still called by its Voortrekker name, although the municipality of which it is part bears the Zulu name; the University of Natal was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College and extended to Durban in 1922. The two campuses were incorporated into the University of Natal in March 1949, it became a major voice in the struggle against apartheid and was one of the first universities in the country to provide education to black students. It became the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004.
The first newspaper in Natal, the Natal Witness, was published in 1846. The 46 hectare; the city hall, the largest red-brick building in the Southern Hemisphere, was destroyed by fire in 1895, but was rebuilt in 1901. It houses the largest pipe organ built by Brindley & Foster; the British built a concentration camp here during the Second Boer War to house Boer women and children. During the Second World War, Italian prisoners of war were housed in Pietermaritzburg. During their stay, they built a church. In 1962, Nelson Mandela was arrested in the nearby town of Howick to the north of Pietermaritzburg; the arrest marked the beginning of Nelson Mandela's 27 years of imprisonment. A small monument has been erected at the location of his arrest. After his arrest Mandela was taken to the Old Prison in Pietermaritzburg. After a night in the prison, he was taken to Magistrate J. Buys’s office in the old Magistrates Court Building in Commercial Road, was remanded for trial in Johannesburg. Prior to 1994, Pietermaritzburg was the capital of Natal Province.
Following the first post-apartheid elect
Apartheid
Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which encouraged state repression of Black African and Asian South Africans for the benefit of the nation's minority white population; the economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day. Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into petty apartheid, which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social events, grand apartheid, which dictated housing and employment opportunities by race. Prior to the 1940s, some aspects of apartheid had emerged in the form of minority rule by White South Africans and the enforced separation of Black South Africans from other races, which extended to pass laws and land apportionment. Apartheid was adopted as a formal policy by the South African government after the election of the National Party at the 1948 general election.
A codified system of racial stratification began to take form in South Africa under the Dutch Empire in the late-eighteenth century, although informal segregation was present much earlier due to social cleavages between Dutch colonists and a creolised, ethnically diverse slave population. With the rapid growth and industrialisation of the British Cape Colony in the nineteenth century, racial policies and laws became rigid. Cape legislation that discriminated against Black South Africans began appearing shortly before 1900; the policies of the Boer republics were racially exclusive. The first apartheid law was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949, followed by the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, which made it illegal for most South African citizens to marry or pursue sexual relationships across racial lines; the Population Registration Act, 1950 classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, cultural lifestyle: "Black", "White", "Coloured", "Indian", the last two of which included several sub-classifications.
Places of residence were determined by racial classification. From 1960–1983, 3.5 million Non-White South Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass evictions in modern history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the Black population to ten designated "tribal homelands" known as bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states; the government announced that relocated persons would lose their South African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans. Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic opposition, resulting in some of the most influential global social movements of the twentieth century, it was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations and brought about an extensive arms and trade embargo on South Africa. During the 1970s and 1980s, internal resistance to apartheid became militant, prompting brutal crackdowns by the National Party government and protracted sectarian violence that left thousands dead or in detention.
Some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and Coloured political representation in parliament, but these measures failed to appease most activist groups. Between 1987 and 1993, the National Party entered into bilateral negotiations with the African National Congress, the leading anti-apartheid political movement, for ending segregation and introducing majority rule. In 1990, prominent ANC figures such as Nelson Mandela were released from prison. Apartheid legislation was repealed on 17 June 1991, pending democratic, multiracial elections set for April 1994. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart" "apart-hood", its first recorded use was in 1929. Under the 1806 Cape Articles of Capitulation the new British colonial rulers were required to respect previous legislation enacted under Roman Dutch law and this led to a separation of the law in South Africa from English Common Law and a high degree of legislative autonomy.
The governors and assemblies that governed the legal process in the various colonies of South Africa were launched on a different and independent legislative path from the rest of the British Empire. In the days of slavery, slaves required passes to travel away from their masters. In 1797 the Landdrost and Heemraden of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet extended pass laws beyond slaves and ordained that all Khoikhoi moving about the country for any purpose should carry passes; this was confirmed by the British Colonial government in 1809 by the Hottentot Proclamation, which decreed that if a Khoikhoi were to move they would need a pass from their master or a local official. Ordinance No. 49 of 1828 decreed that prospective black immigrants were to be granted passes for the sole purpose of seeking work. These passes were to be issued for Coloureds and Khoikhoi, but not for other Africans, who were still forced to carry passes; the United Kingdom's Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire and overrode the Cape Articles of Capitulation.
To comply with the act the South African legislation was expanded to include Ordinance 1 in 1835, which changed the status of slaves to indentured labourers. This was followed by Ordinance 3 in 1848, which introduced an indenture system for Xhosa, little different from slave
Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier 120 km west-southwest of Johannesburg and 45 km east-northeast of Klerksdorp. Potchefstroom, together with Rustenburg, is the second-largest city in the North West Province; the largest city, Klerksdorp, is about 45 kilometres away. Several theories exist about the origin of the city's name. According to one theory, it originates from Potgieter + Chef + stroom. Geoffrey Jenkins writes, "Others however, attribute the name as having come from the word'Potscherf', meaning a shard of a broken pot, due to the cracks that appear in the soil of the Mooi River Valley during drought resembling a broken pot". M. L. Fick suggests that Potchefstroom developed from the abbreviation of "Potgieterstroom" to "Potgerstroom", which became "Potchefstroom". However, this does not account for the appearance of "Potjestroom" on many documents and photographs.
The African National Congress decided to change the name of the municipality and some street names in 2006, favouring "Tlokwe" as the new name. In 2007, its name was changed from Potchefstroom Municipality to Tlokwe Municipality. However, the city continued to use the name Potchefstroom; the Tlowke Municipality merged with the Ventersdorp Municipality in 2016, forming the larger JB Marks Local Municipality. Potchefstroom, founded in 1838 by the Voortrekkers, is the second-oldest European settlement in the Transvaal; the oldest European settlement is Klerksdorp, about 40 km west. Some historians challenge this, because the first settlement was in the "upper regions of the Schoon Spruit". However, Potchefstroom was the first to develop into a town; until 1840, the towns of Potchefstroom and Winburg and their surrounding territories were a Boer Republic known as the Republic of Winburg-Potchefstroom. Voortrekker leader Andries Hendrik Potgieter was elected as chief commandant. In October 1840, after a meeting between Potgieter, Andries Pretorius and G. R. van Rooyen, it was decided that Potchefstroom would unite with "Pieter Mouriets Burg".
On 16–17 January 1852, the Sand River Convention was signed between Andries Pretorius and Major W. S. Hogge and C. M. Owen. According to the convention, the British government would allow the immigrant farmers north of the Vaal River to govern themselves with no interference from either side; this signalled the establishment of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek. In Article 17 of the Constitution of the ZAR dated 18 February 1858, it was stated that "Potchefstroom, located on the Mooi River, would be the capital of the Republic and that Pretoria would be the seat of government". In May 1860, Potchefstroom became the "chief city" of the republic and the capital moved to Pretoria. On 16 December 1880, the First Boer War began; the siege ended amicably on 23 March 1881. The British built an internment camp during the Second Boer War for Boer women and elderly men. At the opening of the city hall in 1909, colonial secretary Jan Smuts was asked about the possibility of Potchefstroom becoming capital of the Union.
He replied that the city stood no chance, but should aim to be South Africa's largest educational centre. This has led to Potchefstroom's being the "city of expertise", with numerous tertiary educational institutions, it has hosted the annual late-September Aardklop Arts Festival, a predominantly-Afrikaans arts festival, since 1997. The Potchefstroom Municipality, which encompasses several neighbouring settlements, had a population of 128,357 in the 2007 community survey. Of these, 69.6 percent were African, 27.0 percent were white, three percent were coloureds and 0.4 percent were Asian. However, the city itself and surrounding suburbs have a population of 43,448, of which 69.9 percent are white, 25.4 percent are African, 2.8 percent were coloured and 1.3 percent were Asian. Ken McArthur of Potchefstroom won a gold medal at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in the marathon. McArthur was known in his home village of North Antrim for his training routine, which consisted of racing a narrow-gauge train.
Potchefstroom is home to five tertiary institutions, 30 other schools and a number of research bureaus and training centres, including: The North-West University, a merged tertiary institution, created on 1 January 2004, with campuses in Potchefstroom and Vanderbijlpark. The Potchefstroom Campus is the largest, the university's head office is located there; the North-West University became one of South Africa's larger universities after the merger, with about 32,000 full-time and distance-education students. The Potchefstroom College of Education, founded in 1919; the college was housed in galvanised-iron buildings on the same premises as the Potchefstroom High School for Boys, moved to its present location in 1923. The College of Education was incorporated by the university on 1 January 2001; the Technical College Potchefstroom, founded in 1939 when the Union Education Department began "continuation classes". The Agricultural Centre known as the Experimental Farm and Agricultural College, is the largest agricultural facility in one location in southern Africa.
The centre houses th
South African Republic
Natalia Republic
Voortrekkers
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Andries Pretorius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 309–310.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 