Galeshewe is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

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 ...

. Within the

Sol Plaatje Local Municipality Sol Plaatje Municipality (; ) is a local municipality within the Frances Baard District Municipality, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is named after Sol T. Plaatje. It includes the diamond mining city of Kimberley. Main place ...

in the

Northern Cape Province The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kga ...

, it is named after Kgosi Galeshewe.

History

The township of Galeshewe was founded in 1878 after diamonds were discovered at kopje (hill) near

Colesberg Colesberg is a town with 17,354 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, located on the main N1 road from Cape Town to Johannesburg. In a sheep-farming area spread over half-a-million hectares, greater Colesberg breeds ma ...

in 1871. The diamond rush which followed the discovery of diamonds saw an influx of people from all over, seeking fortune in the sprawling town of

. In 1873 Kimberley's population had grown to 40,000. The first parts of Galeshewe sprung up in the early 1870s to accommodate the migrant labour population in Kimberley. In 1886, the first large compounds for workers known as the Greater No 2 were introduced at the De Beers Mine. Galeshewe started to grow west from the Greater No 2 in the 1930s. The central part of the present Galeshewe was built between 1950s and 1970s. In 1952 the Native Advisory Committee of Kimberley approved a recommendation from residents to name the township Galeshewe after Kgosi (Chief) Galeshewe of the

Batlhaping tribe Batlhaping is one of the Tswana people, Tswana tribes which resides mostly in the Northern Cape and North West (South African province), North West of South Africa. The name of the Batlhaping loosely translates to "those with an affinity for fish" ...

. On 1 August 1973, the Kimberley Council granted control of Galeshewe township to the Bantu Administration Board of the Diamond Fields. A May 5, 1976 edition of the Kimberley newspaper "The Diamond Fields Advertiser" reported that “slums” in the township were a problem with at least 9 or 10 people living in a four-roomed house. This problem was because of the lack of suitable housing and the ongoing problem of unemployment. On 2 January 1978, the Community Board took over the control of the township. Galeshewe Municipality was inaugurated on 30 November 1983 making the township the first Black-controlled municipality in

. According to a report by the Galeshewe town council, the population of the township was 81202, and made up of 10110 families. There were 10327 residential sites, of which 9525 were still being developed. The township had 10 creche sites, 68 parks, 71 business sites (64 developed), 54 church sites (12 developed) and 30 school sites. In 1988 there were several new suburbs making up Greater Galeshewe. No 2 was still there, but there was also Ikageng (Redirile, and referred to as Stocks and Stocks), Ikageleng, Retswele, KwaNobantu, Zone Six (Extension Six), Ipeleng, and Vergenoeg. In 1994, after the election of South Africa's first democratic government, Galeshewe became part of the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality.

Mayibuye Uprising

On 7 November 1952, Greater No 2, Galeshewe ANC, leader Dr Arthur Letele organised a group of volunteers to defy the segregation laws by sitting on the 'Europeans Only' benches at the Kimberley Station in support of the ANC's

Defiance Campaign The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was presented by the African National Congress (ANC) at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in December 1951 in South Africa, 1951. The Campaign had roots in events leading up the conferenc ...

. They were arrested and fined £3 or 10 days imprisonment. They all opted for the latter. A day later on 8 November, a group of men shouted political slogans, giving the Defiance Campaign salute and were ordered out of the Municipal African Beer Hall in No. 2 Location, Galeshewe because they were doing the salutes in the beer hall. This led to a riot and the destruction of six buildings in the township, including the police station, two nearby clinics, a power station and a crèche. Kimberley police fired at the rioters as they approached the city centre. Thirteen people were killed and 78 others wounded. At dawn the following morning the police detained Dr Arthur Letele, Sam Phakedi, Pepys Madibane, Olehile Sehume, Alexander Nkoane, Daniel Chabalala and David Mpiwa, who were regarded as the ringleaders. On 12 November 1952, a mass funeral was held at the field next to the Methodist Church at the corners of Mzikinya, Rhabe and Sanduza Streets in Galeshewe. The deceased were all buried at the Kimberley West End Cemetery. The uprising and massacre came to be known as the Mayibuye Uprising. In November 2002, a sculpture of a clenched fist with a raised thumb was unveiled in Galeshewe in honour of the Mayibuye Uprising.

Galeshewe Now

According to Census 2011, Galeshewe has a population of 107, 920 people, half of

. 92.2 of the township's population is Black African, 7.28% is Coloured, 0.22% Indian Asian, 0.07% White and 0.30% is identified as "other". 56,8% of the population speaks

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, is a Bantu language indigenous to Southern Africa and spoken by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalaga ...

with

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

being the second-most spoken language at 24,9%. Out of the 25,429 households in Galeshewe, 54,6% have access to clean drinking water and 78,1% have electricity for lighting. The

: Integrated Development Plan - IDP (2017 – 2022), which also includes Galeshewe, states that 31.9% of the population in the area is unemployed. The youth make up 41.7% of the unemployed population in the municipality. 14,8% of the households in the township do not have a source of income while 20,4% (highest percentage) has an income between R19,601 and R38,200. The township's formal housing sits at 74,3%. There are three main health facilities in Galeshewe; the Galeshewe Day Hospital, MaDoyle Clinic and the Galeshewe Clinic. The township has a central police station known as the Galeshewe Police Station. The key points for sports and entertainment in the township are Galeshewe Stadium and the Galeshewe Open Air Arena.

Notable people from Galeshewe

Robert Sobukwe Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (5 December 1924 – 27 February 1978) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, ...

* Manne Dipico * Dipuo Peters *

Jimmy Tau Jimmy Tau (born 23 July 1980 in Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley, Northern Cape) is a South African former association football, soccer player who played as a Full-back (association football), right-back. He played for Kaizer Chiefs and Orla ...

Connie Ferguson Constance Connie Ferguson (née Masilo; born 10 June 1970) is a South African-Motswana actress, filmmaker, producer and businesswoman. She is best known for her lead role as Karabo Moroka on one of South Africa's most popular soap operas, '' Gen ...

* Richard Henyekane * Thebe Magugu *

Gail Nkoane Mabalane Gail Mabalane (née Nkoane; born 27 December 1984) is a South African actress, model, media socialite, businesswoman and singer. She is most notable for acting roles on the South African television series "The Wild", and recently starred on the ...

References

{{Authority control Townships in the Northern Cape Populated places in the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality