North West – the forgotten province?

Klerksdorp – It might be South Africa’s fourth smallest province, but when it comes to wealth and diversity, the North West Province could top the list.With a total land area of 106,512 square kilometres, the North West Province takes up only 8,7 per cent of South Africa’s land area and has a population of just over three million people. To the uninformed, the province with its flat areas of scattered trees and grassland may seem uninteresting, even a little uninhabitable.

But take a closer look and you’ll find a jewel closely resembling the rich array of minerals the province is known for.

The mainstay of the local economy is mining, which generates more than half of the province’s gross domestic product and provides jobs for a quarter of its workforce. The main minerals are gold, mined at Orkney and Klerksdorp; uranium, mined at Klerksdorp; platinum, mined at Rustenburg and Brits; and diamonds, mined at Lichtenburg, Christiana and Bloemhof.

One of the leading mines in the province, Anglo Platinum (Angloplats), is a corporate leader on HIV/AIDS issues in South Africa and recently had its efforts acknowledged with the Khomanani Excellence Award for Best Corporate HIV and AIDS Programme, most notably for its empowerment of previously disadvantaged people from local communities, including the implementation of the Circle of Hope Community Project and the Traditional Healers’ Project. Angloplats’ motto is to give just as much back into the community as what it takes out.

The province is also an important food basket in the country and is sometimes referred to as the Texas of South Africa, with some of the largest cattle herds in the world found at Stellaland near Vryburg in the Bophirima region. Fertile, mixed-crop farming land is found in the southern region with the most important crops being maize and sunflowers.

The Bojanala region is covered in natural bushveld vegetation. With the added attraction of the Magaliesberg, this region has much to offer the eco-tourist. It is a natural game area with a number of game parks. And if it’s the Big Five you’re after, the central region with its ample game lodges is the place to spot them.

Being the only province to offer access to three World Heritage Sites, tourism makes up the third part of the province’s income.

Two thousand million years ago a meteorite the size of Table Mountain slammed into the ground at breakneck speed near what is now Vredefort. The resulting thousand-megaton blast of energy was nature’s equivalent of a nuclear catastrophe. Except that in this case, life was probably given a boost with the development of oxygen and multicultural life linked to the meteorite impact.

Excavating a crater 90 kilometres wide and 20 kilometres deep, the explosion and shock wave pulverised the earth’s rocky innards, ejecting shards of granite and dolomite – forming, amongst other things, a huge rock-like dome, known today as the Vredefort Dome. Concentric circles also cascaded outwards from the hub of the explosion – resulting in huge mountains in an otherwise flat landscape throughout the North West Province and the Free State, and is today referred to as the Dome Conservancy, which was declared a World Heritage Site in July 2005.

The Conservancy houses a finely balanced ecosystem. At least 99 plant species have already been identified, of which the world’s largest Olive Wood Tree Forest is probably the best known. Over 450 bird species have been spotted and the number of butterflies identified in this area are more than in the whole of Great Britain. Relative unknown animal species such as the rooikat, aardwolf, leopard, several small buck and the endangered rock dassie are also inhabitants of the Domeland. And baboons, of course, abound. Historically the “Big Five” were also found here and plans are already underway to re-introduce them into the area.

Another World Heritage Site, the Cradle of Humankind, has over 200 caves on the site, with possibly more to be discovered. There are 13 fossil sites which have been extensively examined – and some have produced fossils of human ancestors and their relatives. A variety of stone tools used by human ancestors such as axes and scrapers have also been identified. The range of other creatures which co-existed in the area included extinct animals such as short-necked giraffe, giant buffalo, giant hyena and several species of sabre-toothed cats.

The Taung Heritage Site is of enormous scientific importance. It was at these limestone diggings at the old Buxton quarry in 1924 that the lime encrusted skull of a child was unearthed. Prof. Raymond Dart, who discovered the skull belonging to an early hominid, named it Australopithecus Africans meaning the “southern ape of Africa”.

Deeper into the province, the unassuming little town of Ottosdal is home to an extinct underwater volcano whose solidified lava flows gave rise to the unique mineral, Pyrophyllite (also known as Wonderstone). Pieter de Jager, local farmer and author, points in the direction of the Wonderstone hill on the neighbouring farm, Gestoptefontein, explaining that the lava and ash is still found in a circumference of 15 kilometres at varying depths of 100 to 300 metres. “The deeper you dig, the darker the lava stone,” he explains.

Wonderstone is completely unique. About ten thousand years ago, the Khoisan Bushmen of the Late Stone Age created the largest collection of rock engravings in South Africa on these rocky outcrops, inclining in the same direction. The subjects depicted vary from symbols of which the meaning is frequently obscure, to animals such as elephants, rhinos, ostriches, lions, buffalo, baboons, snakes and giraffes.

Today Pyrophyllite is mined extensively and outcrops are literally sawn up and removed. It is used for sculpting, as filler in paint and powder for electrical insulation, boilermaker’s chalk and tiles. It is also a component in the manufacturing of synthetic diamonds.

The only tangible evidence of the prehistoric lake still left is Barberspan, a unique bird sanctuary near Delareyville. More than 365 bird species have been recorded in the sanctuary, including a number of rare migrants. It is also the annual breeding ground for thousands of pink flamingoes.

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