Klerksdorp is a city situated at the intersection of the N12 National Route and R30 Provincial Route in the North West Province of South Africa.
The city lies close to the Free State provincial border and 165 km south-east of Mahikeng, the provincial capital and south-east of Tigane suburb in Hartbeesfontein..
Klerksdorp was the first capital of the then Transvaal Republic and used to be the home of the first Stock Exchange in the region.
Klerksdorp falls under the City of Matlosana Local Municipality in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality of North West Province. It is the administrative seat of both the local municipality and district.
Klerksdorp became an important trading town linking Kimberley to Johannesburg. It became home to a mix of farmers, miners and immigrants servicing the two industries. It was then located there because of availability of water and climate change.
Combined with the city of Rustenburg, Klerksdorp is the economic heart of the North West Province. It is also still one of the hubs of the South African gold mining industry, although not as important as it was in the past.
Klerksdorp also forms a major part in the agricultural industry of South Africa, farming maize, sorghum, groundnuts and sunflowers. Klerksdorp houses the largest maize storage silo in South Africa, as well as the largest agricultural cooperative in the southern hemisphere.
History
Klerksdorp was founded in 1837 or 1838 when the Voortrekkers settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit (“Clear stream”), which flows through the town.
Klerksdorp is the oldest European settlement north of the Vaal River, and thus of the former Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Z.A.R), also known as the Transvaal Republic.
The most prominent of the first settlers was Hendrik Grobler who claimed a farm of about 160 km², called it Elandsheuwel (“Hill of the Eland”). He gave plots of land and communal grazing rights on this farm to other Voortrekkers in return for their labour in building a dam and an irrigation canal. This collection of smallholdings was later given the name of Klerksdorp in honour of the first landdrost (magistrate) of the area, Jacob de Clercq.
Klerksdorp was officially proclaimed a town only in 1888.