Ventersdorp Local Municipality
Ventersdorp Local Municipality was a local municipality in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. The seat of local municipality was Ventersdorp. After the municipal elections on 3 August 2016 it was merged in ...
until 2016.
Ventersdorp is centrally located, making it easier to access more prominent urban towns such as Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Rustenburg. The township (or ''Location'') of Tshing houses most of the town's blacks and coloureds. Tshing has a diamond mine nearby that was owned by a town councillor in the early 1990s. Tshing Location has one high school: Thuto Boswa High School. The smaller township Toevlug has
Coloured
Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
residents, some of whom have attend the former whites-only Afrikaans High School after the end of Apartheid since 1995.
History
The town grew around a Dutch Reformed Church that was established in 1866. It was named after Johannes Venter who owned the farm ''Roodepoort'' and the land the church was built on. It was proclaimed as a town in June 1887.
The Mill on the town was built by Richrd Carew Wilson in 1866
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
paramilitary
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
group that Terre'Blanche founded. The town was the site of the 1991 "
Battle of Ventersdorp
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
" in which lethal clashes occurred between members of the apartheid government security forces and the AWB ahead of a scheduled appearance by then
State President
The State President of the Republic of South Africa ( af, Staatspresident) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, albeit, outside the Commonweal ...
F. W. de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk (, , 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996 in the democratic government. As South A ...
.
See also
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Battle of Ventersdorp
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...