The Bronkhorst Spruit, meaning ''
watercress
Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family, Brassicaceae.
Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Eurasia. It is one of the oldest known leaf vegetabl ...
stream'' or ''creek'', is a river in the
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 ...
and
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 ...
provinces 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 ...
. In the 19th century it as was known as the Kalkoenkransrivier or Rhenosterpoortrivier. It is a tributary of the
Wilge River
The Wilge River (, meaning "willow river") is a tributary of the Vaal River in central South Africa. This river is important as part of the Tugela-Vaal Water Transfer Scheme where water is transferred from the Tugela River basin to the Vaal R ...
in the
Olifants River basin, and it lends its name to the town of
Bronkhorstspruit
Bronkhorstspruit is a town 50 km east of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa along the N4 highway towards eMalahleni. It also includes three townships called Zithobeni, Rethabiseng and Ekangala. On 18 May 2011, the Tshwane Metropolitan Munic ...
, situated mainly on its right bank.
Course
Its sources are located in the
highveld
The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld,'' , ) is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly , but below , thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of t ...
grasslands
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur ...
of western Mpumalanga, about 30 km to the ESE of
Springs, Gauteng
Springs is a former independent city that is now part of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, City of Ekurhuleni, based in the east of Johannesburg (East Rand), in Gauteng Province, South Africa. It lies east of Johannesburg and southeast ...
. It flows generally northwards and its main tributary, the
Delmas River
Delmas may refer to:
People Surname
* Antoine Guillaume Delmas (1766–1813), French revolutionary and Napoleonic general
* Benjamin Delmas (born 1976), French ice dancer
* Bert Delmas (1911–1979), American baseball player
* Calixte Delmas (19 ...
, joins its left bank. Further downstream it flows into the
Bronkhorstspruit Dam, situated in eastern Gauteng. Then before it bends northeastwards it passes by the Bronkhorstspruit urban area. It finally has a confluence with the Wilge River some 10 km east of the town, at Premiermyn Dam, Gauteng.
History
When a group of
Voortrekkers arrived at it in 1858, they called it the Kalkoenkransrivier, suggesting a breeding site of
bald ibis
__NOTOC__
The small bird genus ''Geronticus'' belongs to the ibis subfamily Threskiornithinae. Its name is derived from the Greek ''gérontos'' (γέρωντος, "old man") in reference to the bald head of these dark-plumaged birds; in English, ...
, and on Merensky's map of 1875 it (including the current lower Wilge) is the Rhenosterpoortrivier.
In 1880 this river was the scene of the
action at Bronkhorstspruit
The battle of Bronkhorstspruit was the first major engagement of the First Boer War. It took place by the Bronkhorstspruit river, near the town of Bronkhorstspruit, Transvaal, on 20 December 1880. Threatened by the growing numbers of militant B ...
, a battle between a Boer commando under the command of Frans Joubert and British troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Anstruther. It was one of the first serious clashes 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 ...
.
[Castle, Ian. ''Majuba 1881: The Hill of Destiny.'' Oxford, Osprey Publishing, 1996, ]
Dams in the river
*
Bronkhorstspruit Dam
*
Premiermyn Dam
See also
*
List of rivers of South Africa
This is a list of rivers in South Africa.
It is quite common to find the Afrikaans word ''-rivier'' as part of the name. Another common suffix is "''-kamma''", from the Khoisan term for "river"
Meiring, Barbara"South African Toponymic Guidelin ...
*
List of reservoirs and dams in South Africa
The following is a partial list of dams in South Africa. __NOTOC__
In South African English (under influence of Afrikaans), a dam refers to both the wall as well as the reservoir or lake that builds up as a consequence.
List of dams (reservo ...
References
{{reflist
External links
The Olifants River Basin, South AfricaOlifants River CatchmentChannel Slopes in the Olifants, Crocodile and Sabie River Catchments
Olifants River (Limpopo)
Rivers of Gauteng
Rivers of Mpumalanga