Deep in the heart of the Magliesburg Mountains lies a true gem: for sale

Magaliesburg

Magaliesburg is a small town situated below the Witwatersrand mountain range in Gauteng, South Africa. The Magaliesberg mountain range is north and visible from town, hence the name "Magaliesburg". The mountains themselves are named after Kgosi Môgale Wa Môgale, a MoTswana chief of the BaPô ba Mogale clan. Burg is the Afrikaans name for Town and berg means mountain.

Tourism

The town and surrounds are popular holiday and weekend destinations for the residents of Johannesburg. With more than 100 accommodation venues and a great variety of activities, the small village at the foot of the Magalies Mountain is the ideal escape for city dwellers.

Magaliesburg is the home of the oldest mine in Gauteng. At The Blaauwbank mine, gold was discovered there more than 100 years ago. Besides tourism, the main income generating activity of Magaliesburg and the surrounding area is agriculture. Beef, maize, and large scale vegetable farming are most prevalent.

The village has become a very attractive option for city dwellers who wish to live closer to nature. Homesteading is popular with many individuals and families going out of their way to be as self-sufficient as they are able. As this is a very difficult goal for most, there are many Magaliesburgers who live in the area but commute to Johannesburg or Pretoria for income generating employment.

The Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve

The Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve is located in South Africa between the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg to the east and Rustenburg to the west. The reserve lies at the interface of two great African biomes — the Central Grassland Plateaux and the sub-Saharan savannah — and the remnants of a third biome, the Afro‐montane forest. The rich biodiversity includes floral species such as Aloe peglerae and Frithia pulchra, and faunal species such as the forest shrew (Myosorex varius), sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) and 443 bird species representing 46.6% of total bird species in the southern African sub-region.

Geography

The area is characterised by its scenery and unique natural features. As a typical biosphere reserve, it contains a core zone with buffer and transition zones surrounding it. The reserve has two core zones; the first of which is the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site which encompasses cultural heritage sites and sites of archaeological interest dating back to 4 million years. The second core zone is the 34,355.86 hectares (84,895.2 acres) Magaliesberg Protected Natural Environment.

Ecological characteristics

The reserve includes a variety of landscapes including slopes, cliffs, crests, kloofs, rivers, wetlands and valleys. Although the area covers a diverse geological area, it consists mainly of the Magaliesberg mountain complex comprising two geological formations: the Transvaal System and the Bushveld Igneous Complex. These formations contain the richest platinum and platinum group minerals in the world and its varied topography hosts 14 different vegetation types.

The reserve contains four important habitats: the Moot Plains Bushveld, characterised by open to closed, low and often thorny savannah dominated by various species of Acacia; the Gold Reef Mountain Bushveld, characterised by rocky hills and ridges with more dense woody vegetation; the Northern Afrotemperate Forest, characterised by low, relatively species-poor forests of afromontane origin; and the Marikana Thornveld, characterised by open Acacia karroo woodlands occurring in valleys, slightly undulating plains and some lowland hills.

A total of 90 indigenous mammal species have been recorded in the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve. These include the klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus), sable antelope (Hippotragus niger), leopard (Panthera pardus) and brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea). The bird diversity in the area is exceptional. In total, 46.6% of the bird species recorded in the southern African sub-region are found in the reserve. These include the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheras), secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), martial eagle (Polemaetus belliccosus) and African grass-owl (Tyto capensis).

Socioeconomic characteristics

The area faces high levels of unemployment and poverty. The main economic activities are agriculture, mining, urban development and tourism. The reserve has a total population of 196,728 inhabitants, significantly lower than that of the neighbouring cities of the metropolitan areas (Johannesburg and Pretoria) within whose boundaries it falls. The area has witnessed a melting pot of different cultural groups over millennia, often at war with one another, resulting in a rich and varied cultural history representative of the larger South Africa.

The main economic activities are agriculture, mining, urban development and tourism, although the unemployment range is high with numbers between 25% and 40%.

In terms of historical value there are few places on the planet where better evidence of deep time can be found. The Cradle of the Humankind World Heritage Site, consisting of 13 listed fossil sites and 400 unexplored caves, contains a superbly preserved record of the stages in the evolution of humankind over the past 4 million years. It includes one of the most important Stone Age sites in the world and a sizeable proportion of the total number of hominid skulls discovered on the planet.

Hekpoort, Magaliesberg

Nestled on the southern slopes of the Magaliesberg Mountain range is the predominantly farming area of Hekpoort, only a short drive from Hartbeespoort Dam and accessible from the south via a pass through the Daspoortrand, hence the name Hekpoort (meaning ‘gate’ in Afrikaans).

Hekpoort is one of the closest areas to the Magaliesberg, the looming richly wooded mountain range with a flat top of quartzite rock - the playground of Jo’burgers wanting to get away from the city and much loved by hikers, mountain bikers and rock climbers alike. The area is incredibly beautiful and the almost consistently blue skies and typically sunny Gauteng weather mean that this part of the world is ideal all year round.

Skeerpoort, Hartbeespoort Dam

Skeerpoort train station lies along the R560, west of Hartbeespoort dam and just outside the parameters of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. If there is a town of Skeerpoort then it remains very well hidden in amongst the gentle swellings of the Magaliesberg range of mountains, and the fields of farmland that line the side of the road.

This part of the country, however, is heavenly. Despite being an hour and a half from Johannesburg, Skeerpoort lies virtually untouched. There are very few neighbouring towns, if you discount the presence of the now densely occupied and extremely popular Hartbeespoort Dam roughly ten minutes' drive away, and, whilst there is obvious development in the way of farms, the sense of open space and the presence of the mountains and the World Heritage Site, make it most inviting for those seeking to get away from it all without having to travel too far.

Kroondal, Bojanala Region

The small town of Kroondal is known for its deep sense of history and heritage, as well as for its excellent mining opportunities. It is nestled within the North West Province of South Africa, and has a large German population.

It was established in 1843 as a German Lutheran mission station. This history has infused Kroondal with a unique heritage and character, which invites visitors from all over the world to come and see its many attractions. These include the Kroondal Mill (which has been restored and now houses a restaurant and a display of the original milling equipment), the Lutheran Church (a National Monument that was built in 1896), and the Tobacco and Cotton Research Institute (which offers guided tours and fascinating insights).

Boons, South Africa

Boons is located in the region of North-West. North-West's capital Mahikeng (Mahikeng) is approximately 160 km / 99 mi away from Boons (as the crow flies). The distance from Boons to South Africa's capital Pretoria (Pretoria) is approximately 99 km / 61 mi (as the crow flies).

Derby, South Africa

Derby is a small town situated in North West Province of South Africa that was named after the British Secretary of State Lord Derby. Derby began as a refuge for destitute people.

Village 117 km west-north-west of Johannesburg, 60 km south-west of Rustenburg and 17 km east of Koster. Laid out on portions of the farms Rietfontein and Vlakfontein, it was named after Lord Derby, British Secretary of State.

Rustenburg

Rustenburg is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 2017, the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached ZAR 63.8 billion, accounting for 21.1% of the GDP of the North West Province, and 1.28% of the GDP of South Africa. Rustenburg was one of the official host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, being in close proximity to Phokeng, the capital of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, where the Royal Bafokeng Stadium is located. The England national football team also used this as their base camp for the tournament.

Before European settlers arrived, the area had been settled by agrarian Setswana-speaking tribes

Rustenburg's population is primarily Tswana people. Partially belonging to the Royal Bafokeng Nation, extensive landowners earning royalties from mining operations. The Royal Bafokeng are descendants of Sotho settlers who displaced the local tribes from the region, which they came to call 'place of dew' (Phokeng). In the early 1800s, the Bafokeng and other Tswana communities were conquered in a series of devastating wars launched by an offshoot of the Zulu kingdom, called the Matebele. The Boers had also fought the Zulu and Matebele, and so the Boers and Tswana found in the Matebele a common enemy. The Tswana and Boers planned together and worked toward defeating the Matebele from a Sotho-Tswana kingdom to the south, and together, they defeated the Matebele. As the Boers settled in the area, called their settlement Rustenburg because they had relatively friendly relations with their Bafokeng allies in the area, and after the many violent military conflicts with other African chiefdoms, such as the Matebele, they believed they could rest ("rusten" in Dutch) in this settlement, whose name literally means "Resting Town."Although had already long lived in the area when the Boers arrived, the Bafokeng bought land rights from the Boers, and they purchased their first tracts of land in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century from the colonial rulers, some in exchange for serving in the Boer Wars. Although these land purchases were technically illegal, Paul Kruger, who would become a president of the Transvaal Boer Republic, but was then a veld kornet, was friendly to the Bafokeng and helped arrange many of these purchases. A public hospital has been named after Paul Kruger.Rustenburg was established in 1851 as an administrative centre for an Afrikaner farming area that produced citrus fruit, tobacco, peanuts, sunflower seeds, maize, wheat and cattle. On 10 February 1859, the Reformed Churches in South Africa was founded under a Syringa tree, now commemorated with a memorial. Rustenburg was the home of Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic, who bought a 5 square kilometer farm to the north-west of the town in 1863. The homestead on his farm, Boekenhoutfontein, is now the Paul Kruger Country Museum. When the Boer and the British came to blows in the Second Boer War (1899), the territory around Rustenburg became a battlefield. The two sides clashed at nearby Mafikeng, where the British garrison found itself under siege for months.

Among the early residents of Rustenburg were settlers of Indian origin. One of the first families of Indian origin was the Bhyat family, whose contribution to the city's history was marked by the renaming of a major street name to Fatima Bhayat Street in honour of Fatima Bhyat who arrived in Rustenburg with her husband in 1877.

Platinum mining in Rustenburg began in 1929, shortly after the discovery of the Platinum Reef by Hans Merensky, later named the Merensky Reef. The mine is located about 3 km from the town centre and owned and managed by the Anglo American plc. According to legend, the farmer that owned the land sold the mineral rights to Anglo American for R10 000.