Rustenburg

Province

Rustenburg [ rœstənbœrx ] is a city in the North West Province in South Africa. It is located northwest of the Magaliesberg Mountains. The city had 2011 104.612 inhabitants. The name means place of rest Rustenburg.

History

Rustenburg was founded in 1851 by the Voortrekkers. It owes its prosperity to two platinum mines in the Merensky Reef, which are among the largest in the world.

Attractions

Worth seeing in Rustenburg, the Anglican Church, built in 1871, the Dutch Reformed Church and in the late Victorian historicism built City Hall from the 19th century. The Rustenburg Museum offers a collection of archaeological finds from the region as well as an overview of the history of the South African Republic.

The farm area Boekenhoutfontein that once belonged to the South African politician Paul Kruger is located a few kilometers north Rust Petersburg and offers visitors more than one held in the Cape Dutch style houses. Among other things, a wooden hut has been preserved from the year 1841.

A number of hiking and riding paths invite the midst of a rich and varied fauna and flora of the Kgaswane Mountain Reserve in the western Magaliesberg for sporting activities.

Sports

Rustenburg was one of the ten host cities of the Football World Cup in 2010. Five preliminary round matches and one second round game - were in the 42,000 -seater Royal Bafokeng stadium discharged.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the town

• John Cranko (1927-1973), dancer and choreographer
• Pik Botha ( born 1932 ), former Foreign Minister of South Africa ( 1977-1994 )
• Frik du Preez ( born 1935 ), rugby union player
• Danie Visser ( b. 1961 ), tennis player
• Johan Botha (born 1965 ), opera singer
• Cassandra Slingerland ( b. 1974 ), cyclist

Other personalities

The German pilot Willy Rosenstein, who lived in Rustenburg, came there in 1949 in a plane crash.