Editing Rustenburg (section)

==History==
===Mfecane===
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2018}}
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 people|Sotho]] [[settler]]s 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."{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}  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,{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} 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.

===Establishment===
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2018}}

Rustenburg was established in 1851 as an administrative centre for an Afrikaner farming area that produced [[citrus]] fruit, tobacco, peanuts, [[sunflower seed]]s, maize, wheat and cattle.  On 10 February 1859, the [[Reformed Churches in South Africa]] was founded under a [[Melia azedarach|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&nbsp;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.

===Apartheid===
The city was known for its conservative character during the [[apartheid]] era, and attracted large campaign rallies by the [[National Party (South Africa)|National Party]].<ref>Lelyveld, Joseph (19 April 1981). [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/19/magazine/anxiety-over-apartheid.html?searchResultPosition=29 Anxiety Over Apartheid] ''The New York Times Magazine''. Retrieved on 9 February 2025</ref><ref name=veld>Leylyveld, Joseph (30 April 1981). [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/30/theater/in-south-africa-sometimes-the-sound-of-laughter.html?searchResultPosition=33 In South Africa, sometimes the Sound of Laughter] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved on 9 February 2025</ref>

===Post-Apartheid===
The township of Boitekong on the northeast side of Rustenburg has one of the highest incidences of [[HIV/AIDS in South Africa|AIDS]] orphans in South Africa<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/72-000-new-infections-in-6-months-20101201 |title=72 000 new infections in 6 months |publisher=News24 |date=1 December 2010 |access-date=7 May 2012}}</ref> Rustenburg was the venue for World AIDS Day commemoration in December 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&sid=14998&tid=25252 |title=M Masike: World AIDS Day (English) |publisher=Info.gov.za |access-date=7 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328122236/http://www.info.gov.za/speech/DynamicAction?pageid=461&sid=14998&tid=25252 |archive-date=28 March 2012 }}</ref> The township is in a geographical area which bears the brunt of the catchment area of the toxic effects of the mining industry coupled with a very poor quality of water supply from the local [[Bospoort Dam]], the water from which was for decades considered too toxic for human consumption until water shortages in the nineties compelled the purification and supply to Boitekong. Life for the majority under the rule of the 'Royal Bafokeng' has parallels to the apartheid era.  In the Apartheid era, forced removals of old settlements were on the basis of racial divide whereas now it is done for installation of massive mining operations sometimes engulfing entire villages.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

The Royal Bafokeng company own the stadium selected as a World Cup 2010 venue, the only 'private' stadium that hosted games in the 2010 World cup. The Royal Bafokeng regard themselves as a 'separate nation' which is in contradiction to the [[Rainbow nation]] espoused by Desmond Tutu and [[Nelson Mandela]]. This 'nationhood' is regarded by many today{{who|date=October 2018}} as a [[divide and rule]] tactic orchestrated by the mining conglomerates which has subsequently led to the calls for [[nationalization]] of the mining industry by the [[ANC Youth League]]. The majority of people in the region 20 years after the fall of apartheid still live in abject poverty despite the massive profits yielded by the platinum royalties. This has led in recent years to claims of kleptocracy against the 'royal' family and [[land claim]] disputes.{{Original research inline|date=October 2018}}

Agriculture in the region has been in constant decline since the decimation of the vast citrus estates of Rustenburg in the 1970s and 1980s due to pollution from increased smelting and beneficiating processes by mines. There are only a fraction of the original citrus farms remaining.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

In 1990, the first post-Apartheid conference between the [[Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk]] (the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa) and the South African churches was held in Rustenburg. During this conference, professor Willie Jonker of the University of Stellenbosch made this confession on behalf of the entire DRC:
<blockquote>"[I] confess before you and before the Lord, not only my own sin and guilt,
and my personal responsibility for the political, social, economic and structural wrongs that have been done to many of you and the results [from] which you and our whole country are still suffering, but vicariously I dare also to do that in the name of the NGK [the white DRC], of which I am a member, and for the Afrikaans people as a whole."<ref>{{Cite book
  | last1 = Tutu
  | first1 = Desmond
  | first2 = John
  | last2 = Allen
  | title = The Rainbow People of God:The Making of a Peaceful Revolution
  | publisher = Doubleday
  | year = 1994
  | location = New York
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/rainbowpeopleofg00tutu/page/221 221–225]
  | isbn = 0-385-47546-2
  | url-access = registration
  | url = https://archive.org/details/rainbowpeopleofg00tutu/page/221
  }}
</ref></blockquote>
The conference finally resulted in the signing of the Rustenburg Declaration, which moved strongly toward complete confession, forgiveness, and restitution.<ref>{{cite web
 |title       = The Rustenburg Declaration
 |year        = 1990
 |url         = http://www.ngkerk.org.za/abid/dokumente/amptelikkestukke/Rustenburg%20Declaration%201990.pdf
 |access-date  = 13 December 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110721042956/http://www.ngkerk.org.za/abid/dokumente/amptelikkestukke/Rustenburg%20Declaration%201990.pdf
 |archive-date = 21 July 2011
}}</ref>