Vryburg | |
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Vryburg town hall
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Vryburg shown within North West | |
Coordinates: 26°57′0″S 24°44′50″E / 26.95000°S 24.74722°ECoordinates: 26°57′0″S 24°44′50″E / 26.95000°S 24.74722°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | North West |
District | Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati |
Municipality | Naledi |
Area | |
• Total | 64.24 km2 (24.80 sq mi) |
Population (2011) | |
• Total | 21,182 |
• Density | 330/km2 (850/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 40.8% |
• Coloured | 37.6% |
• Indian/Asian | 3.2% |
• White | 17.7% |
• Other | 0.7% |
First languages (2011) | |
• Afrikaans | 56.3% |
• Tswana | 33.0% |
• English | 6.4% |
• Other | 4.3% |
Postal code (street) | 8601 |
PO box | 8600 |
Area code | 053 |
Vryburg (Afrikaans for free borough) is a large agricultural town with a population of 48,200 situated in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality of the North West Province of South Africa. It is the seat and the industrial and agricultural heartland of the district of the Bophirima region.
It is situated halfway between Kimberley (the capital of the Northern Cape Province) and Mahikeng (the capital of the North West Province). It is on Cecil Rhodes’s great northern railroad, which ran from Cape Town through the Kimberley diamond fields, Vryburg, Mafikeng, and northwards beyond Victoria Falls. It is also on the N14 National Road which runs from Gauteng Province in a southwesterly direction through Vryburg, Kuruman and Upington to the mining town of Springbok in the North-western Cape. This road also connects Gauteng Province with Namibia.
The township Huhudi (Tswana for "running water") is situated just south of the town. The Tiger Kloof Native Institute was set up south of the town by the London Missionary Society in 1904. A cornerstone for the building of the institute was laid in 1905 by the Earl of Selborne. The stone church on the premises is a national monument.