Postal code (street) 0284 Area code 014 | PO box 0284 Local time Monday 1:24 AM | |
 | ||
Weather 18°C, Wind SE at 5 km/h, 62% Humidity | ||
Rooikoppies, also known as Marikana, is a town in Rustenburg local municipality, Bojanala Platinum District Municipality district in the North West province of South Africa.
Contents
Map of Marikana, 0284, South Africa
The name Rooikoppies means 'red hills' in Afrikaans.
Neighbouring localities include Marikana train station (1 km; 0.62 mi to the north-east), Wonderkop (4 km; 2.5 mi), Ramala, Rietfontein, Rustenburg (29 km; 18 mi); Swaershoek (30 km; 19 mi); Mooinooi (31 km; 19 mi); Brits (36 km; 22 mi); Monnakoto (38 km; 24 mi); Hartbeespoort (43 km; 27 mi); Kosmos (48 km; 30 mi).
History
The town was laid out in 1870 on the farm Rooikoppes, and the settlement later expanded into seven white-owned farms. In 1933, the Buffelspoort Dam was built, allowing the local farmers to irrigate their crops.
The farming community grew in the 1960s on the back of lucrative tobacco farming, but other diversified farming practices i.e. cattle, maize, chillies, paprika, soya, lusern and sunflower amongst the main groups was the main economic driver of the area. In the 1970s mining was introduced and grew to become the main industry in the region. The main mining activities are PGMs and chrome. Since the introduction of mining activities the informal and form population had a growth explosion.
The Marikana miners' strike of 10 August 2012 and the subsequent killing of 34 workers by police made headlines in the international media.