Charlestown (South Africa)
| Charlestown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Coordinates | 27 ° 24 '54 " S , 29 ° 52' 27" O | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| District | Amajuba | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA | ||
| local community | Newcastle | ||
| surface | 22 km² | ||
| Residents | 4392 (2011) | ||
| density | 199.7 Ew. / km² | ||
| founding | 1889 | ||
 Charlestown (1899)
|
|||
Charlestown is a South African town in the local municipality of Newcastle in the district of Amajuba , KwaZulu-Natal province . In 2011 it had 4,392 inhabitants with 947 households.
description
The place, founded in 1889, was named after Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell (1836-1899), who became governor of the Natal colony in the same year . In 1906 Charlestown was proclaimed a township . Although Charlestown is only about 5 kilometers south of Volksrust ( Mpumalanga Province ), it is already on the territory of the neighboring KwaZulu-Natal Province .
history
The former importance of Charlestown lay in the border post between Transvaal and Natal. Here an important road and rail line crosses the border between these former provinces. On both sides, in Charlestown and Volksrust, there were developed train stations with customs clearance points. When this border crossing was abandoned, many white residents left the place. The city council encouraged blacks to buy land in the village, some leased it and built their houses on it. In 1964 there were 80 buildings here, 28 of which were inhabited by black families who were subject to the usual tax obligations like other residents. There was public displeasure among all residents when the information penetrated that the place should be declared a township for Indians . In October 1964, the white population turned to the government in Pretoria through the regional MP and demanded that it be established as a “white” area with a separate “ Bantu residential area”.
The Minister for Bantu Administration and Development declared on April 19, 1963 in the South African Parliament that there were around 350 black spots in South Africa , 250 of which were in Natal Province.
Charlestown was a blackspot settlement in which black residents owned their own land. In 1953 it was announced and told to the black residents in Charlestown that they would have to move to the Buffalo Flats (east of Newcastle in the plains of the Buffalo River ) and that landowners among them would receive compensation at the then market price of the property.
In 1963 they were asked to either go to the place where they worked or to move to the new Duck Ponds (also Duckponds ) settlement near Newcastle (about 40 km from Charlestown). Finally, in 1963, the people of Charlestown were forcibly relocated to another area about 10 kilometers from Newcastle, called the Duck Ponds (now Madadeni , Township). Their movable things were loaded onto trucks and taken to small, prefabricated huts. They were not allowed to take their cattle with them. Their homes in Charlestown have been demolished. A proclamation dated October 1964 prohibited all new construction activities.
The Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA) was one of the few legal organizations to oppose this policy. Here it was Peter Brown, whose commitment led to the establishment of the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA).
Attractions
Very few historic buildings have survived in Charlestown. Parts of the development have been abandoned for a long time.
Nearby is the striking Majuba mountain range (2099 m). Here on February 27, 1881, a bloody battle ( Battle of Majuba Hill ) between British and Boer troops took place, in which the British suffered a defeat with 200 dead. The victory of the Boer units was of great importance for the further political development and ended the First Boer War . After the peace agreement, the Transvaal republic was endowed with a high level of state sovereignty.
The Indian-born architect Jamaloodeen Karim designed the plans for a mosque in Charlestown and other localities in northern Natal.
On the road to Memel is the Fanny Knight Memorial , an obelisk as a memorial to a murder in 1927.
Economy and Infrastructure
The place is underdeveloped.
traffic
The N11 national road runs through Charlestown . The village also has a train station on the railway line between Johannesburg and Durban , which was known as the Natal Main Line , one of the early railway routes in what is now South Africa.
Web links
- Hugh Bland: Charlestown . Picture portrait on www.kznpr.co.za (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2011 census . accessed on June 1, 2020.
- ^ Peter Edmund Raper : Dictionary of Southern African Place Names . Lowry Publishers, Johannesburg 1987 (2nd ed.), P. 76.
- ↑ a b according to OSM.
- ^ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pretoria: NZASM Volksrust Railways Precinct . at www.dutchfootsteps.co.za (English).
- ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1964 . Johannesburg 1965, p. 224.
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1963 . Johannesburg 1964, p. 187.
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race relations in South Africa 1953-1954 . Johannesburg 1954, pp. 67-68.
- ↑ a b University of KwaZulu-Natal , Alan Paton Center & Struggle Archives: Country Issues: black spots, forced removals and resettlement . at www.paton.ukzn.ac.za (English).
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1964 . Johannesburg 1965, pp. 224-225.
- ^ South African History Online : The First Anglo-Boer War: Boers defeat the British at the Battle of Majuba . at www.sahistory.org.za (English).
- ^ Schalk W. Le Roux: KARIM, Jamaloodeen . at www.artefacts.co.za (English).
- ↑ Mike Bell: Fanny Knight Memorial . at www.artefacts.co.za (English).