Transvaal Province

For other uses, see Transvaal (disambiguation).

Province of the Transvaal Transvaal Provinsie
Geography
Status	Province of South Africa
HQ	Pretoria
History
Origin	Transvaal Colony
Created	31 May 1910
Abolished	31 May 1994
Succeeded by	Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West
Politics
Governance	Transvaal Provincial Council

Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.

History

In 1910, the Boer republics joined with the Cape Colony to form the Union of South Africa. Half a century later, in 1961, the union ceased to be part of the Commonwealth of Nations and became the Republic of South Africa. The Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) conurbation in the Transvaal became South Africa's economic powerhouse, a position it still holds today.

In 1994, after the fall of apartheid, the former provinces were restructured, and a cohesive Transvaal ceased to exist. The new Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces lie fully within the borders of the old Transvaal as does most of the North West and also a tiny segment of KwaZulu-Natal. However, even before 1994 the Transvaal Province was subdivided into regions for a number of purposes (such as municipal and district courts, and sporting divisions), these divisions included Northern Transvaal (Currently Limpopo, with the City of Tshwane), Eastern Transvaal (Currently Mpumalanga), Western Transvaal (Currently North West province) and Southern Transvaal (Now Gauteng province, excluding Tshwane)

Geography

The Transvaal province lay between Vaal River in the south, and the Limpopo River in the north, roughly between 22½ and 27½ S, and 25 and 32 E. To its south it bordered with the Orange Free State and Natal provinces, to its west were the Cape Province and the Bechuanaland Protectorate (later Botswana), to its north Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), and to its east Portuguese East Africa (later Mozambique) and Swaziland. Except on the south-west, these borders were mostly well defined by natural features.

Several Bantustans were entirely inside the Transvaal: Venda, KwaNdebele, Gazankulu, KaNgwane and Lebowa. Parts of Bophuthatswana were also in the Transvaal, with other parts in Cape Province and Orange Free State.

Within the Transvaal lies the Waterberg Massif, a prominent ancient geological feature of the South African landscape.

Divisions:

• Zoutpansberg

Cities in the Transvaal:

• Heidelberg
• Johannesburg
• Messina
• Nelspruit
• Pietersburg
• Pretoria
• Vereeniging