Piet Retief (South Africa)
| Piet Retief | |||
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| Coordinates | 27 ° 0 ′ S , 30 ° 48 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Mpumalanga | |||
| District | Gert Sibande | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA-MP | ||
| local community | Mkhondo | ||
| height | 1250 m | ||
| Residents | 57,428 (2011) | ||
| founding | 1882 | ||
| Website | pietretief.co.za (English) | ||
 Historic building in the center of Piet Retief
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Piet Retief is a city in the South African province of Mpumalanga . It is the administrative seat of the municipality of Mkhondo in the Gert Sibande district . In 2011 the city had 57,428 inhabitants.
location
Piet Retief is located on the railway line from Ermelo to KwaZulu-Natal and can be reached via the national road N2 . Regional roads lead to the west, south and east. The border with Swaziland lies around twelve kilometers east of the city . Three streets lead from Piet Retief. There is a regional airport near the city.
The surrounding region is known as the Eastern Highveld .
history
The city was founded in 1882 and named after the Voortrekker guide Piet Retief . From 1886 to 1891 the place was the capital of the small Boer republic Klein Vrystaat . During the Second Boer War , the city was almost completely destroyed. For a long time the city had a large German-speaking minority due to immigrants from the Hermannsburg Mission . Piet Retief had the only trilingual newspaper in South Africa, in Afrikaans , German and English .
Economy and Infrastructure
The main line of business is wood extraction and its processing into paper.
sons and daughters of the town
- Jack Diamond (born 1932), architect
- Sandra Laing (born 1955), daughter of Boer parents with “non-white” appearance
- Pretty Yende (born March 6, 1985), opera singer
- Sunnyboy Dladla , opera singer
Web links
- Tourist website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 16, 2013