Villiers is a small town situated on the banks of the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Oce ...

next to the N3 highway in the Free State 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 ...

, on the border with

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

province. It is part of the Mafube Local Municipality. It was founded in 1882 on the two farms ''Pearson Valley'' and ''Grootdraai'' owned by Lourens de ''Villiers''.

History

The town of Villiers is named after Lourens de Villiers on whose farms the town was first built. The town was established at the Vaal River crossing on the route between

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

. The town was proclaimed by State President F.W. Reitz on 29 May 1891.

Notable people

* Theuns Stofberg

References

{{Fezile Dabi District Municipality Populated places in the Mafube Local Municipality Populated places founded by Afrikaners Populated places established in 1891 1891 establishments in South Africa