Riebeeckstad is a suburb 5 km east of the city of

Welkom Welkom () is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about northeast of Bloemfontein which is the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela and Matjhabeng. The ci ...

located in the

Lejweleputswa District Municipality Lejweleputswa ( Sesotho word meaning "Grey rock" in English) is one of the 5 districts of Free State province of South Africa. The seat of Lejweleputswa is Welkom. The majority of its 657 019 people speak Sotho (2001 Census). The district code is ...

of the Free State province of

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 coun ...

History

It is named after

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg, as the son of a surgeon. ...

and was established as an upper-class suburb, void of mine shafts, for people working in Welkom or on the

Free State goldfields The Free State goldfields were only developed after the Second World War even though gold had been discovered in 1938. The development gave rise to major development of the region. Background After the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand i ...

. The suburb is the largest in the city of Welkom and has a significant

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

population.

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...

is most spoken language in the suburb followed by Sesotho and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

. The suburb is located few kilometres from the Central University of Technology in Welkom.

References

Populated places in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality {{FreeState-geo-stub