Bronkhorstspruit is a town 50 km east of

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

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 ...

along the N4 highway towards eMalahleni. It also includes three townships called Zithobeni, Rethabiseng and Ekangala. On 18 May 2011, the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality took over the municipal administration from the abolished Kungwini Local Municipality, which makes Bronkhorstspruit part of Tshwane.

History

In 1858, a group of Voortrekkers settled beside the Bronkhorst Spruit creek, which was originally called Kalkoenkransrivier ('

turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

cliff river'). The town was laid out on land of the farm ''Hondsrivier'' in 1904 owned by C.J.G. Erasmus and was initially named after him. It adopted the name Bronkhorstspruit in 1935. On 20 December 1880 it was the scene of the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit, an important event in the early days of the

First Boer War The First Boer War (, ), was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and Boers of the Transvaal (as the South African Republic was known while under British ad ...

when a Boer Commando ambushed a British army column, 94th Regiment of Foot, near the present town en route from Lydenburg to

. There is disagreement about where the town got its name from. Some believe it was named after the farmer J.G. Bronkhorst, while others say that it was named after the plant, bronkors (Afrikaans for watercress), that grew in the region of the creek. Bronkhorstspruit was the seat of the Metsweding District Municipality as well as the Kungwini Local Municipality. Then, on the day of South Africa's 2011 general elections (18 May 2011), the entire Metsweding District ceased to be its own municipality and became part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.

Parks and greenspace

Ten kilometers to the south of the town lies the Bronkhorstspruit Dam.

Suburbs

*Erasmus *Masada *Riamar Park *Bester Park *Cultura Park *Bronkhorstbaai

Economy

Agriculture

Being an agricultural area, maize, sorghum, groundnuts, sunflower seeds, sheep and cattle are grown and raised.

Mining

Fire clay Fire clay is a range of refractory clays used in the manufacture of ceramics, especially fire brick. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines fire clay very generally as a "mineral aggregate composed of hydrous silicates of alumi ...

is as well as

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mined in the area.

Places of interest

Cultura Park, a suburb of Bronkhorstspruit, hosts the largest

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

temple in Africa. Nan Hua Temple houses the South African headquarters of the Fo Guang Shan sect, a Humanistic Buddhist order.

References

External links

Bronkhorstspruit Information
Populated places established in 1858 Populated places in the City of Tshwane Populated places founded by Afrikaners {{Gauteng-geo-stub