Editing Rondebosch (section)

==History==
[[File:Charles Michell04.jpg|thumb|Rondebosch Church, 1830s.]]
[[File:The Free Burghers Settlement.jpg|thumb|A map of the first farms granted to free burghers by the VOC in 1650s mentioning the farm of "Ronde Bosje" from which Rondebosch got its name.]]
Four years after the first Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1652, the first experimental crops were grown along the banks of the [[Liesbeek River]] (at that stage called the Amstel or Versse Rivier).{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} In October 1656, [[Jan van Riebeeck]] visited Rondeboschyn, whose name derived from a contraction of "''Ronde Doorn Bossien''," referring to a circular grove of thorn trees growing on the banks of the Liesbeek River.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite web | title=Rustenburg Schools' Birthday Party | via =Issuu | date=2014 |work =RGHS Magazine | url=https://issuu.com/rghs/docs/rghs_2014_complete_reduced/s/10518645 | access-date=10 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Brodie | first=N. | title=The Cape Town Book: A Guide to the City's History, People and Places | publisher=Penguin Random House South Africa | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-920545-99-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQ9bDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT260 | access-date=10 April 2022 | page=260}}</ref> By 1670 the area's name had been shortened to "''Rondeboschje''" in the [[Dutch East India Company]]'s (VOC) records.

In 1657, the first group of VOC employees gained [[Free Burghers in the Dutch Cape Colony|free burgher]] status, four of whom were granted land along the river and founded "[[Free Burghers in the Dutch Cape Colony#Stephen’s Colony|Stephen's Colony]]" in the area now known as Rondebosch.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Free Burghers in the Cape, South Africa |url=https://southafrica.co.za/free-burghers-cape.html |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=southafrica.co.za}}</ref> The first permanent title of land in southern Africa was issued, by Van Riebeeck, to the four free burghers of Rondebosch.<ref name=":1" />

The area only obtained recognition as a separate village or area of Cape Town after the 1830s.<ref name=":1" /> In 1864 the area was [[Rondebosch railway station|connected by railway]] upon the competition of the Cape Town to Wynberg line.<ref name="hrasa">{{cite web |date=October 2009 |title=South Africa commemorates 150 years of rail |url=http://hrasa.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=42 |access-date=25 July 2010 |publisher=Heritage Railway Association of Southern Africa}}</ref> By the time of the [[1875 Cape census|1875 census]] Rondebosch had a recorded population of 1,902 residents. The [[1891 Cape census|1891 census]] recorded a population of 3,378, and by the time of the [[1904 Cape census]] the area had a total population of 6,035, of whom 4,312 were recorded as being literate.<ref name=":1" />

One of Cape Town's first municipal electricity stations was built in 1892 to supply power to the Rondebosch area, replacing the old [[Gas lighting|oil street lamps]] with electric ones.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-05-24 |title=The early years - Heritage |url=https://www.eskom.co.za/heritage/the-early-years/ |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=www.eskom.co.za |language=en-US}}</ref>

On 4 May 1990 the '[[Groote Schuur Minute]]’ was co-signed in Rondebosch by the then leader of the [[African National Congress]], Nelson Mandela, and then [[State President of South Africa]], FW de Klerk, as a commitment to a peaceful negotiation process to end Apartheid. Thereby starting the process to peacefully transition to South Africa's modern democracy.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Groote Schuur Minute 4 May 1990 - The O'Malley Archives |url=https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/site/q/03lv02039/04lv02103/05lv02104/06lv02106.htm |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=omalley.nelsonmandela.org}}</ref>