Marikana, also known as Rooikoppies, is a town in the
Rustenburg Local Municipality,
Bojanala Platinum District Municipality
The Bojanala Platinum District Municipality () is one of the 4 districts of the North West province of South Africa. The seat of the municipality is Rustenburg. As of 2011, a majority of its 1,507,505 residents spoke Setswana. The district code ...
in the
North West province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
.
The name Rooikoppies means 'red hills' in Afrikaans.
Neighbouring localities include Marikana train station (1 km; 0.62 mi to the north-east),
Wonderkop (4 km; 2.5 mi), Ramala, Rietfontein,
Rustenburg
Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a town at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West (South African province), North West province, South Africa (549 ...
(29 km; 18 mi);
Swaershoek (30 km; 19 mi);
Mooinooi (31 km; 19 mi);
Brits (36 km; 22 mi);
Monakato (38 km; 24 mi);
Hartbeespoort (43 km; 27 mi);
Kosmos (48 km; 30 mi).
History
The town was laid out in 1870 on the farm Rooikoppies, and the settlement later expanded into seven white-owned farms. In 1933, the
Buffelspoort Dam was built, allowing the local farmers to irrigate their crops.
The farming community grew in the 1960s on the back of lucrative tobacco farming, but other diversified farming practices i.e.
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...
,
maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
,
chillies
Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli ( ), are varieties of fruit#Berries, berry-fruit plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. They are used as a spice to ...
,
paprika
Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers, traditionally ''capsicum annuum''. It can have varying levels of Pungency, heat, but the peppers used for hot paprika tend to be milder and have thinner flesh than those used to produce ...
,
soya, lusern and
sunflower
The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...
amongst the main groups was the main economic driver of the area. In the 1970s mining was introduced and grew to become the main industry in the region. The main mining activities are PGMs and chrome. Since the introduction of mining activities, the informal and formal population had a growth explosion.
The
Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012 and the subsequent killing of 34 workers by police made headlines in the international media.
References
Populated places in the Rustenburg Local Municipality
Populated places established in 1870
1870 establishments in the South African Republic
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