Matjiesfontein Shale Fynbos
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Matjiesfontein Shale Fynbos
Matjiesfontein is a settlement in Central Karoo District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History The original inhabitants of the region were the Khoikhoi herders and the San hunter gatherers. Following the arrival of the early European colonists, the area was settled by Afrikaner Trekboers and Griqua people. Railway origins The town itself owes its existence to the Cape Government Railways, and to the route that their founder, Cape Prime Minister John Molteno, chose for a railway line that would connect Cape Town's port to the diamond fields of Kimberley. The Royal Commonwealth Society (1898) records that in a meeting with his consulting engineers, the Prime Minister called for a map of Southern Africa to be brought to him and, taking a ruler, drew his pen along it from Cape Town all the way inland. He then handed the map to the engineers, telling them to build the railway accordingly. The line rapidly extended inland, and a station was built on 1 F ...
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South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black South Afri ...
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Khoikhoi
Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. Nienaber, 'The origin of the name “Hottentot” ', ''African Studies'', 22:2 (1963), 65-90, . See also . ) are the traditionally Nomad, nomadic pastoralist Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous population of southwestern Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San people, San (literally "Foragers") peoples. The designation "Khoekhoe" is actually a ''kare'' or praise address, not an ethnic endonym, but it has been used in the literature as an ethnic term for Khoe–Kwadi languages, Khoe-speaking peoples of Southern Africa, particularly pastoralist groups, such as the Griqua people, !Ora, !Gona, Nama people, Nama, Khoemana, Xiri and Damara people, ǂNūkhoe nations. While the presence of Kho ...
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South African Heritage Resource Agency
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is the national administrative body responsible for the protection of South Africa's cultural heritage. It was established through the ''National Heritage Resources Act, number 25 of 1999'' and together with provincial heritage resources authorities is one of the bodies that replaced the National Monuments Council. Heritage Listings in South Africa * List of heritage sites in South Africa * National heritage sites of South Africa * Provincial heritage site (South Africa) * Heritage objects (South Africa) Associated legislation * National Heritage Resources Act, Act 25 of 1999 See also * National Monuments Council (South Africa and Namibia) * National heritage sites (South Africa) * Heritage objects (South Africa) * List of heritage sites in South Africa * Provincial heritage resources authority * Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali * Heritage Western Cape * Northern Cape Heritage Resources Authority The Northern Cape Heritage Res ...
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Cecil Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company colonised the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895. South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after him. He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate. The son of a vicar, Rhodes was born at Netteswell House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. A sickly child, he was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18, and, thanks to funding from Rothschild & Co, beg ...
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James Sivewright
Sir James Sivewright K.C.M.G. (1848–10 September 1916) was a businessman and politician of the Cape Colony, South Africa. He was a strong political ally of Cecil Rhodes and, as his cabinet minister, was implicated in the "Logan" corruption scandal that led to the fall of the first Rhodes government. Early life James Sivewright was born in Fochabers, Scotland. Graduating from the University of Aberdeen, he entered the British Postal Service and co-authored the ''Textbook in Telegraphy'', a book that became a standard text book on the topic for a considerable time. Telegraphy in the Cape After he worked in India for its telegraph service, he emigrated to the Cape Colony in 1877 and became the general manager of telegraphy. He would retire from the service in 1885. The Cape had recently wrested a degree of independence from Britain under the " Responsible Government" system, and its first Prime Minister John Molteno was embarking on a massive expansion in the country's infras ...
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Parliament Of The Cape Of Good Hope
The Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope functioned as the legislature of the Cape Colony, from its founding in 1853, until the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when it was dissolved and the Parliament of South Africa was established. It consisted of the House of Assembly (the lower house) and the legislative council (the upper house). The First Parliament Prior to responsible government, the British government granted the Cape Colony a rudimentary and relatively powerless Legislative Council in 1835. The British attempt to turn the Cape into a penal colony for convicts, similar to Australia, mobilised the local population in the 1840s and threw up a generation of local leaders who believed that far-away Britain was not capable of understanding local interests and issues. This group of politicians, which included the likes of Porter, Solomon, Fairbairn, Molteno, Stockenström and Jarvis, shared not only a common belief in the importance of local self-government, ...
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Cyperus Textilis
''Cyperus textilis'' (flat sedge, basket grass, umbrella sedge, mat sedge) is a sedge in the family Cyperaceae. It is endemic to southern parts of South Africa where it grows near rivers and other water reservoirs. ''Cyperus textilis'' is used to make baskets, sleeping mats, rolled twine and other woven articles. Description ''Cyperus textilis'' can grow to be 1 to 3 meters tall. It forms clumps like other ''Cyperus ''Cyperus'' is a large genus of about 700 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. Description They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic and growing in still or slow-moving w ...'' species and is similar to the commonly kept plant '' C. alternifolius''. References {{Taxonbar, from=Q15536479 textilis ...
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Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the ''Mother City'', it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located. Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape's population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place ...
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John Molteno
Sir John Charles Molteno (5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a soldier, businessman, champion of responsible government and the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. Early life Born in London into a large Anglo-Italian family, Molteno emigrated to the Cape in 1831 at the age of 17, where he found work as an assistant to the public librarian in Cape Town. At the age of 23 he founded his first company, ''Molteno & Co.'', a trading company that exported wine, wool and aloes to Mauritius and the West Indies, and opened branches around the Cape. In 1841, he undertook Southern Africa's first experimental export of fruit, loading a ship with a range of fruits (necessarily dried, as no refrigeration existed yet) and sending it to Australia to test foreign markets. The experiment ended in disaster when his ship was wrecked in a storm – pushing Molteno close to bankruptcy. Disposing of the remains of his mercantile businesses, he immediately bought some land in the arid Bea ...
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Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa. The British colony was preceded by an earlier corporate colony that became an Dutch Cape Colony, original Dutch colony of the same name, which was established in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company, Dutch East India Company (VOC). The Cape was under VOC rule from 1652 to 1795 and under rule of the Napoleonic Batavian Republic, Batavia Republic from 1803 to 1806. The VOC lost the colony to Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain following the 1795 Invasion of the Cape Colony, Battle of Muizenberg, but it was acceded to the Batavian Republic, Batavia Republic following the 1802 Treaty of Amiens. It was re-occupied by the British following the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806 ...
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Cape Government Railways
The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately owned. The Cape Town Railway and Dock Company started construction from Cape Town in 1859, reaching Eerste River by 1862 and Wellington by 1863. Meanwhile, by 1864, the Wynberg Railway Company had connected Cape Town and Wynberg. For the moment, railway development at the Cape did not continue eastwards beyond Wellington because of the barrier presented by the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt. Formation of CGR The discovery of diamonds, and the consequent rush to Kimberley that started in 1871, gave impetus to the development of railways in South Africa. Shortly afterwards, in 1872, the Cape Colony attained responsible government under the leadership of Prime Minister John Molteno, who presented plans for an enormous network of railways t ...
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Griqua People
The Griquas (; af, Griekwa, often confused with ''!Orana'', which is written as ''Korana'' or ''Koranna'') are a subgroup of heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in Southern Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Cape Colony. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons license. Under apartheid, they were given a special racial classification under the broader category of "Coloured". Similar to the Trekboers (another Afrikaans-speaking group of the time), they originally populated the frontiers of the nascent Cape Colony (founded in 1652). The men of their semi-nomadic society formed commando units of mounted gunmen. Like the Boers, they migrated inland from the Cape, in the 19th century establishing several states in what are now South Africa and Namibia. Griqua was the name given to a mixed-race culture in the Cape Colony of South Africa, around the 17th and 18th Century (Taylor, 2020). They were also known as Hotten ...
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