Country South Africa District Gert Sibande Established 1881 Area code 017 | Province Mpumalanga Municipality Pixley Ka Seme Elevation 1,660 m (5,450 ft) Local time Tuesday 11:47 PM | |
Weather 16°C, Wind N at 8 km/h, 76% Humidity | ||
Volksrust is a town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa near the KwaZulu-Natal provincial border, some 240 km southeast of Johannesburg, 53 km north of Newcastle and 80 km southeast of Standerton.
Map of Volksrust, South Africa
The town was laid out in 1888 on the farms Boschpad Drift, Rooibult or Llanwarne, Verkyk and Zandfontein, and proclaimed in 1889. Municipal status was attained in 1904. It has important beef, dairy, maize, sorghum, wool and sunflower seed industries.
Dorothea de Jager, daughter of Dirk Uys, one of the battle victims, named the town Volksrust (Nation's Rest) and probably refers to the citizens resting here after the Battle of Majuba on 27 February 1881, when the Transvaal won its independence back from the British. During the Second Boer War the British built a concentration camp in Volksrust, where many Boer women and children died.
The Miss World 2014, Rolene Strauss, was born here.