Concept

Witbank

Witbank (wətbænk), officially Emalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wagon transport drivers rested. The city is known for its coal-mining in the surrounding region. Witbank was renamed to Emalahleni meaning the place of coal in 2006 by the government of Mpumalanga, matching the municipality. Witbank was founded in 1890 and early attempts to exploit the coal deposits failed until the railway from Pretoria reached the area in 1894. It was proclaimed a town in 1903 and became a municipality in 1914. There are many stories about the city and its origination but the top story would be the arrival of Winston Churchill at the nearby Transvaal and Delagoa Bay Colliery during his escape from Boer imprisonment in Pretoria, on his way to Delagoa Bay (later Lourenço Marques, and then Maputo, in Mozambique). Some local residents, loyal to the Crown, assisted him in hiding and making the final leg of his escape, thus gaining Witbank the consequent credit once the details of these events could be made known. The town has grown since then from a farming community into a business destination where companies such as Anglo American, BHP, Evraz, Eskom, Exxaro, Komatsu, the Renova Group, SABMiller, and Xstrata, among many others have found substantial returns on their investments. On 3 March 2006, Witbank was officially renamed to Emalahleni, meaning place of coal matching the name of the municipality that contains it. A large number of signs to the town have already changed, but many still remain. Some landmarks bearing the name Witbank have remained, while others (such as the Witbank/Emalahleni dam) have been renamed. Despite attempts by governing bodies to establish the use of the name, Emalahleni, for the city as well as for the district, locals still tend to call the city by its original name.

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University of Pretoria
The University of Pretoria (Universiteit van Pretoria, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johannesburg-based Transvaal University College and is the fourth South African institution in continuous operation to be awarded university status. The university has grown from the original 32 students in a single late Victorian house to approximately 53,000 in 2019.
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania.
Transvaal (province)
The Province of the Transvaal (Provinsie van Transvaal), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (ˈtrɑːnsvɑːl,_ˈtræns-; ˈtransfɑːl), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Transvaal" refers to the province's geographical location to the north of the Vaal River. Its capital was Pretoria, which was also the country's executive capital. In 1910, four British colonies united to form the Union of South Africa.
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