Vryburg, North West

Vryburg "(free fort)" is a large agricultural town situated in the Bophirima district of the North West Province of South Africa. It is the seat of the district.

It is situated halfway between Kimberley (the capital of the Northern Cape Province) and Mafikeng (the capital of the North West Province). It is on Cecil Rhodes’s great northern railroad, which ran from Cape Town through the Kimberley diamond fields, Vryburg, Mafikeng, and northwards beyond Victoria Falls. It is also on the N14 National Road which runs from Gauteng Province in a southwesterly direction through Vryburg, Kuruman and Upington to the mining town of Springbok in the North-western Cape. This road also connects Gauteng Province with Namibia.

The township Huhudi (Tswana for "running water") is situated just south of the town. The Tiger Kloof Educational Institute was set up south of the town by the London Missionary Society in 1904. The stone church on the premises is a national monument.

When the Boer Republic of Republic of Stellaland was established in 1882, Vryburg became its capital. The first and only president was G.J. van Niekerk. In 1885, the British seized the town and incorporated the area into British Bechuanaland, which in turn became part of the Cape Colony in 1895. During the Second Boer War, the British built a concentration camp here to house Boer women and children. In 1910, the Cape Colony became the Cape Province, one of the four provinces of the Union of South Africa and later the Republic of South Africa. When nine provinces were established in 1994, it became part of the North West Province.

Vryburg is South Africa's largest beef producing district, with Hereford cattle the most popular. It is sometimes called "the Texas of South Africa". Maize and peanuts are important crops produced in the district.

Sir Arnold Theiler, the veterinarian who established the world famous veterinary research institute Onderstepoort near Pretoria, did research on the farm Armoedsvlakte, 8 km west of Vryburg during his early career. The Theiler Museum on the farm exhibits some of the equipment he used.

External links

* [http://www.tigerkloof.nw.school.za/ Tiger Kloof Educational Institute]
* [http://www.arc.agric.za/institutes/ovi/ Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute]