Pietersburg (Polokwane in Sotho) is a Ville of South Africa located in the province of the Limpopo (old Transvaal of north). It merges since 1995 with the Municipalité of Polokwane.

Located at 1312 m of altitude, just with the lower part of the Tropic of Capricorn and to 297 km in the north of Johannesburg, it is a town of 200.000 inhabitants for an agglomeration of 500.000 inhabitants. Pietersburg founded in 1884 by a group of Boer S was driven out of Schoemansdal by the Venda S. the city was baptized in the honor of Pieter Joubert, hero of the battle of Majuba against the Britanniques.

Very preserving city afrikaner of the time of the Apartheid, the white inhabitants of this area were the only ones to refuse mainly the abolition of the mode segregation nist at the time of the Référendum of 1992.

Until 1994, Pietersburg was encircled by the autonomous black state of the Lebowa.

In 1995, the municipality integrating the townships is baptized Pietersburg/Polokwane. The municipality passed very quickly under the domination of ANC and in 2002, the town of Pietersburg was simply renamed Polokwane during the process of Africanization of the names of the provincial towns to the fury of the inhabitants afrikaners.

The choice of the name of Polokwane is always discussed. Officially, it is the former name of the place in Langue sotho before the boers does not rename it Pietersburg. However, according to the majority of the historians, the name of Polokwane had never been used to indicate this place before 1995. It would seem well that this name was invented and is only the translation in sotho of Pietersburg.

Today, Polokwane shelters the government and the Parliament of one of the poorest provinces of South Africa.

The city is located at the variation of the tourist tours. Indeed, Polokwane is before a whole administrative and commercial center. One distinguishes there nevertheless Pietersburg Museum located in a " house irlandaise" (1906) of style victorien, the museum of the photograph Hugh Exton located in a reformed church going back to 1890, City Public garden and its sculptures, the cemetery of the Concentration camp where 627 boers rest including 523 children victims of British oppression lasting the Guerre of Boers of 1899 - 1902.

External bonds

• Site of information on Pietersburg
• Site of the municipality of Polokwane