South Africa - Towns and Cities H-K

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• Add the profiles of the founders of places in South Africa to the project. If the person is on Geni please add the link to their profile, and make this a bold entry. If the person is not on Geni add a link to an external source but do not make the link bold. This will help us to see who still needs to be added/found on Geni.
• Add the Place name to the list below - arranged Alphabetically.

Historical Province and Post 1994 Provinces are added under each place name in the listings.

H

Hackney

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
(Hekeni)

Hackney is a populated place and is located in Chris Hani District Municipality, some 464 mi or (746 km) South of Pretoria . The estimate terrain elevation above sea level is 1342 metres. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQ8-4SYB-P?i=1042...

Hanover 1854

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Small town in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, is named after Hanover in Germany. The town was established in 1854. One of the early farms was Petrusvallei which in time became Hanover. The farm was originally granted to W. L. Pretorius in November 1841, but things did not go well and by February the following year he sold to Jan J. Smook. Frederick von Malditz later acquired the property and later still Petrus J. Botha, who sold it to Gert Johannes Wilhelm Gouws, the grandson of Sterren Gauche, a German who had come to Africa in search of his fortune. Petrusvallei was part of an outlying district of Graaff-Reinet and known as Bo-Zeekoeirivier (Upper Hippopotamus River). On 17 July 1854, a six-man committee bought the farm for the sum of 33 333 Rixdollars. Their intention was to start a settlement and church farm. Gouws was retained as manager and J. J. Swart was in charge of finances. Survey work started almost immediately, and early in 1856 forty plots were sold. A town grew at the foot of a cluster of hills near a strong natural spring called The Fountain. It delivered over 200,000 litres of fresh water a day, and still does. By 13 October 1856, the affairs of this fledgling town were placed in the hands of a church council. At Gous's request it was agreed to name the village Hanover as his grandfather had come from that city in Germany.

Hardekraaltjie

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)

Hartswater 1948

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
An agricultural town on the Phokwani River, a small tributary of the Hart river. 23 km south of Taung and 36 km north of Warrenton. Centre of the Vaal-Harts Irrigation Scheme, it became a municipality in April 1960. It takes its name from the Harts River. The town was laid out in 1948. There is a monument built in the shape of a miniature church dedicated to the women of Vaalharts for their contribution towards building and developing the Vaalharts irrigation scheme located in the town of Hartswater. The town has its own wine cellar and also a newly built olive processing business. see Vaalharts Valley

Harrismith

Orange Free State (post 1994 Free State)
Sir Harry Smith Harrismith is one of three towns named of Sir Harry Smith.

Hartbeesfontein 1955

Transvaal (post 1994 North West
a.k.a. Tigane

Mining town 29 km north-west of Klerksdorp, 45 km east of Ottosdal and 56 km south of Coligny. Named after the farm on which it was laid out, derived from an incident in which two Voortrekkers, pursuing a wounded hartebeest (Alcelaphus caama), found it dead at a spring (fontein). Proclaimed in 1955, it is administered by a health committee. Not to be confused with Hartebeesfontein south of Stilfontein

Hartebeesfontein (Mine)

Transvaal (post 1994 North West

Heidelberg 1862

Transvaal (post 1994 Gauteng)
Heinrich Julius Frederich Ueckermann, SV/PROG 1 Heidelberg began in 1862 as a trading station built by a German H.J. Ueckermann. A town was laid out around the store and named after Ueckermann's alma mater.

Heidelberg Kaap 1855

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
On the N2 between Swellendam and Riversdal next to the Duivenhoks River Louis J Fourie sold a piece of the farm Doornboom in 1855 to establish the town Heidelberg.

Helpmekaar

Natal (post 1994 KwaZulu-Natal)
A village 26 km south-east of Dundee. Afrikaans for 'help each other', the name is derived from transport riders having had to assist each other in making a road over a nearby hill. See the Defence of Helpmekaar.

Herbertsdale

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
SEE Belleville

Hermanus

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
Hermanus was originally called Hermanuspietersfontein, but shortened in 1902 as the name was too long for the postal service. Hermanus Pieters (ca.1778–1837) was a Dutch teacher who arrived in Cape Town in 1815. He was recruited by Dutch-speaking farmers who disliked that English was the only language used in all government schools. He settled in Caledon, but taught Dutch to farmers in a wide area around that town, including the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. He often vacationed at the spring ("fontein") in present-day Hermanus, where he fished and grazed his sheep, the place eventually became known as “Hermanus Pieters se Fonteyn”. He died before the village Hermanuspietersfontein existed.

Hofmeyr 1873

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Founded in 1873, the town was initially named Maraisburg. To avoid confusion with the Gauteng area of Maraisburg it was renamed Hofmeyr in 1911 [2] in honour of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan), a campaigner for the equal treatment of Afrikaans and English and a prominent figure in the Eerste Taalbeweging. The Hofmeyr Skull, belonging to a 36,000 year old anatomically modern human, was found in 1952 in the dry wash of the Vlekpoort River just outside Hofmeyr.

Hopetown 1850

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Hopetown was founded in 1850 when Sir Harry Smith extended the northern frontier of the Cape Colony to the Orange River. A handful of settlers claimed ground where there was a natural ford over the Orange River, and by 1854 a frontier town had developed. Hopetown was named after William Hope, Auditor-General and Secretary of the Cape Colony Government at the time, and is often mistaken for a town in the Freestate, South Africa, called Hoopstad. Hoopstad is a different town and should not be confused with Hopetown in the Northern Cape, South Africa.

Hoopstad 1876

Transvaal (post 1994 North West
Initially founded in 1876 and named Hauptstad after Mr Haupt, a surveyor. The translation of Hauptstad into Afrikaans means Capital, which it clearly wasn’t and the town was therefore renamed Hoopstad. The town, whose name means "Hope City" in Afrikaans, was established on the one side of the large farm Kameeldoorns, with another town Bultfontein on the other side.

Howick 1850

Natal (post 1994 KwaZulu-Natal)
The town is the location of Howick Falls;.The waterfall was known as kwaNogqaza or "The Place of the Tall One" by the original Zulu inhabitants. During the 1840s travellers moving north from Pietermaritzburg crossed the Umgeni River just west of present-day Howick at the Alleman's Drift. In 1849, the Wesleyan Missionary James Archbell bought three farms above the northern bank of the Umgeni River. Title deeds of the original plots simply named the area "The Village on the Umgeni Waterfall". In 1850, the river crossing was moved to the dangerous but more convenient spot at the top of the Falls. This was less than 200 metres (660 feet) from where the river plunged over the cliff's edge. It was a treacherous spot, and many travellers and wagons were swept over the falls. With the increase in traffic to the north, the Government decided to establish a village at the crossing, and purchased part of James Archbell's farm. In November 1850, a proclamation appeared in the Natal Government Gazette, offering 36 village allotments on the Umgeni Waterfall Drift for sale. This marked the beginning of the town. In choosing a name for the new town, Government officials decided to honour their Secretary of State for the Colonies in London. He was Earl Grey, and had recently acquired the title of Lord Howick. The name derived from his ancestral home of Howick Hall in Northumberland, England. WIKI

Houtbaai/Hout Bay 1662

The first written account of Hout Bay dates to 1607 when John Chapman, masters mate on the English boat, the "Consent" which was becalmed at the entrance to the Bay, was sent in the ship's pinnace at dusk on a chancy venture because Hout Bay was unknown wild country and the time was late afternoon which would make it difficult for him to find the Consent in the darkness.

Recorded in the Rutter (Logbook) by the pilot, John Davis: "Chapman’s Chaunce hath in latitude 34-10 and is a harbour which Leith within the south-west point under a little hill like charring cross (a sculptured memorial of a cross on an ornamental mounting in London) close hanging by the seaside of the S.S.W side of the land " Chapmans Chaunce was the first name given to Hout Bay and it was also the first English name to appear on the maps of Southern Africa

When the Dutch established a colony in Table Bay in 1652, a great quantity of good timber was required for construction, shipbuilding and other purposes. There was no large forest in the immediate vicinity of the settlement, mainly because the rainfall was not high enough. It was soon apparent that the colonists would be able to fell wood they needed in the wetter valley that lay on the other side of a low pass (now called Constantia Nek) between the southern end of Table Mountain and Constantiaberg.Van Riebeeck described the forest of Hout Bay as being the finest in the world. It was Van Riebeeck who gave Hout Bay its present name.
In 1652 on 22 November Van Riebeeck wrote in his journal about T’ Houtbaaitjen. Since then it has been known as Hout Bay.

In 1662, the year when Jan Van Riebeeck left the Cape, the Boscheuwel road was extended from Kirstenbosch in a rough track over Constantia Nek to Hout Bay.

In 1668 the first permit to cut and saw wood in the Hout Bay forest was granted. In 1677 the first agreement to rent land for farming purposes was signed. In 1681 two farms were established Ruyteplatts and Kronendal.

Humansdorp 1849

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Humansdorp was founded in 1849, and was named after Johannes Jurie Human and Matthys Gerhardus Human, who were joint founders of the Dutch Reformed Church congregation there. The town's residential streets are lined with trees that were planted before the First World War by the then mayor, Ambrose Saffery.

• See Hendrik Spoorbek for a colourful person linked to Humansdorp.
  

I

Indwe 1896

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Town 40 km south-east of Dordrecht and 34 km north-west of Cala. It was founded in 1896 as a centre for low- grade coal-mining activities which started in 1867, and attained municipal status in 1898. It takes its name from the Indwe River, named after the blue crane (Tetrapteryx para- disea, Xhosa iNdwe), which occurred there in great numbers

Irene 1889

Transvaal (post 1994 Gauteng)
Violet Nellmapius Alois Hugo Nellmapius, a businessman. Nellmapius had previously established a transport business between Lourenço Marques and Pilgrim's Rest, as well as several industrial concerns (a gin and whisky factory, South Africa's first gunpowder factory, and the Irene lime works). Nellmapius renamed the farm Irene Estate, after his daughter.

J

Jacobsdal 1859

Orange Free State (post 1994 Free State)
A small farming town with various crops under irrigation, such as grapes, potatoes, lucerne and groundnuts. The town was layout in 1859 by Christoffel Jacobs on his farm Kalkfontein, and today houses 6,500 inhabitants.t is a small attractive town on the Riet River, and in the 19th century it was near the boundary between the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony. Its district boundaries date back to 1834 when the Cape Colony negotiated with the Griqua Captain, Andries Waterboer. The town was established in 1859 on the farm Kalkfontein, 'lime spring'. The town was named after the farm's owner, Christoffel Johannes Jacobs. It obtained municipal status in 1860. At that time, the Jacobsdal district was one of the largest districts in the Orange Free State republic.

Jamestown 1874

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Town 55 km south of Aliwal North. Named after James Wagenaar, owner of the farm on which it was laid out.

Jamestown (2) 1902

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
The village was named after James Rattray (1859–1938),[16][17] a Stellenbosch businessman who owned a butchery in Dorp Street. He was the grandson of Scottish teacher James Rattray (c. 1795–1864) who immigrated to the Cape Colony in 1822

Jan Kempdorp 1953

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Town 96 km north of Kimberley and 43 km west of Christiana, in the Vaalharts Irrigation Settlement. Laid out on the farm Andalusia, it at first bore that name. The first settlers bought plots in 1938, and the town was proclaimed in 1953 and named after General Johannes C J Kemp, a former Minister of Lands. Municipal status was attained in 1967. Situated in the Cape and Transvaal, there was some confusion as to the administration. In 1964 it was decided that it would fall under the Cape authorities. When new provincial boundaries were drawn in 1994, Jan Kempdorp was divided between the Northern Cape and North West provinces. The whole of the town was, however, included in the cross-border Phokwane Local Municipality. In 2006 cross-border municipalities were eliminated and the whole of the town was included in the Northern Cape. During the Second World War it was the site of a concentration camp housing German men regarded as potentially dangerous by the authorities. Municipal status was attained in 1967.

Jansenville 1854

Jansenville is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

Pre 1994 Cape Province

Post 1994 Jansenville Municipality and Cape Province

Town on the Sundays River, 87 km south of Graaff-Reinet. Laid out on the farm Vergenoegd in 1854, it was proclaimed in 1855 and became a municipality in 1881. Said to have been named after General Jan Willem Janssens (1762-1838), the last Batavian Governor of the Cape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jansenville

https://www.karoo-southafrica.com/camdeboo/jansenville/history-of-j...

Jeffrey's Bay 1849

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Joseph Avent Jeffery a businessman, erected a wood and iron warehouse in 1849 near the Kabeljouws River. This is recorded as being the first place of business to open on the shore. For many years he operated an export business with his partner John Glendinning. He built a mansion, the first house in Jeffrey's Bay in 1852. It was known as the “White House”.

Jeppe

Transvaal (post 1994 Gauteng)

Johannesburg 1886

Transvaal (post 1994 Gauteng)
Johann Friedrich Rissik Christiaan Johannes Joubert Johannes Petrus Meyer (1882-1919) The generally accepted origin of 'Johannesburg' is that it was named after Johann Friedrich Rissik and Christiaan Johannes Joubert. But there is also a strong lobby behind a third claimant to the title, veldkornet Johannes Petrus Meyer, the first government official in the area, and the first to attempt to bring order to the area with a system to peg out mine claims.

Joubertina 1907

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Founded and introduced into the Langkloof community in 1907.

K

Kamieskroon 1924

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Founded in 1924, when the Dutch Reformed Church bought the land to relocate from Bowesdorp, 8 km to the north of the current location of the town. The move was forced by a shortage of water and restricted space for the growth of the town.

Karatara 1941

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
The name is of Khoekhoen origin and probably means 'horse hill', after a hillock to the north. Previously the Karatara River was known as the Tsao or Witterivier.

Keiskammahoek 1847

Cape - (post 1994 Eastern Cape.)
(also spelled Keiskamahoek)
A small settler village in the foothills of the Amatola Mountains, about 50km from King William's Town, at the confluence of the Gxulu and Keiskamma Rivers. The indigenous name for the area is Qobo Qobo which means "a fragile thing". Keiskammahoek is derived from Dutch and Khoikhoi roots meaning "corner of shining waters". The area was first settled during the 1846-7 border conflict, when a British military outpost was established. In 1849, when hostilities ended, the military, were replaced by a Scottish missionary, the Rev Robert Niven, who established his mission station, Uniondale there. The Rev. Niven and his family were forced to flee when their home was burnt down at the outbreak of further hostilities in 1850. In 1851 the British re-established a tented camp at Keiskammahoek under the command of Colonel Henry Somerset. In April 1852 a body of Royal Engineers began the erection of a fortified tower. This was completed in 1855 and named Castle Eyre after Colonel John Eyre of the 73rd Royal Highlanders. In March 1853 the Cape Colonial Government declared the area immediately surrounding Castle Eyre a Royal Crown Reserve. The first settlers began building homes at Keiskammahoek soon after the end of hostilities in 1853. The white population grew with the settlement of German legionaries and their families who immigrated to South Africa during 1857-8 and 1876-7. A Lutheran church was built about 1858 but was replaced by a more permanent building in 1877. From 1981 until 1994 the town was part of the Ciskei bantustan. SA History Online - Keiskammahoek

Kenhardt 1876

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Town on the Hartbees River, 110 km south of Upington and 227 km north-west of Carnarvon. It was founded in 1876, a village management board was instituted in 1881, and municipal status achieved in 1909. The origin of the name is unknown.

Kensington

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
Suburb of Cape Town

Kensington 1897

Transvaal (post 1994 Gauteng)
A suburb in Eastern Johannesburg established in 1897 by Max Langermann (after whom the thoroughfare Langermann Drive is named)

Kensington, Port Elizabeth

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)

Kensington B

Transvaal (post 1994 Gauteng)
A suburb in Randburg, Gauteng - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_B

Kestell 1905

Orange Free State (post 1994 Free State)
The town of Kestell is named after the Reverend John Daniel Kestell. Kestell was a descendant from 1820 settler stock, and was born in Pietermaritzburg.

Kimberley 1873

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barkly's visit to New Rush in September the following year, when he revealed a plan instead to have Griqualand West proclaimed a Crown Colony. Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the promised new constitution and provision for representative government. The delay was in London where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive "decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, Vooruitzigt … he could neither spell nor pronounce it." The matter was passed to Southey who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J.B. Currey. Roberts writes that "when it came to renaming New Rush, [Currey] proved himself a worthy diplomat. He made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it 'after His Lordship'." New Rush became Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873. Digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated "we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone." Direct quote from Wikipedia.

King William's Town 1835

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
post 2021 Qonce
Established in 1835 and then capital of the British Colony ' British Kaffraria ' 1835 to 1866 Was abandoned in 1836 then reoccupied December 1846 Named after William IV

Famous people

• Steve Biko, anti-apartheid Black Consciousness Movement leader was born here
• Charles Patrick John Coghlan, first premier of Rhodesia was born here
• John Tengo Jabavu, founder of the first Xhosa-language newspaper in South Africa
• Griffiths Mxenge, anti-apartheid activist
• Victoria Mxenge, anti-apartheid activist
• Steve Tshwete, anti-apatheid activist
• Makhaya Ntini, former South African Test cricketer
• Raven Klaasen, professional tennis player

Kirkwood 1885

Cape (post 1994 Eastern Cape)
Town in the Sundays River Valley, 80 km north-west of Port Elizabeth and 51 km north of Uitenhage. It was called Bayville in 1885 but re- established in 1913 on the farm Gouvernementswoning and named after John Somers Kirkwood, who pioneered the development of irrigation locally. It acquired municipal status in March 1950. The Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir John Francis Cradock, gave the first farms in the Sundays River Valley to the leaders of the successful burger commandos for their role in the victories in the border wars of 1811 and 1812.

Klerksdorp 1837/8

Transvaal (post 1994 North West
The city was founded in 1837/1838 when the Voortrekkers settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit  ("Clear stream"), which flows through the town. Klerksdorp is the oldest European settlement north of the Vaal River. The most prominent of the first settlers was Hendrik Grobler who claimed a farm and called it Elandsheuwel ("Hill of the Eland"). He gave plots of land and communal grazing rights on this farm to other Voortrekkers in return for their labour in building a dam and an irrigation canal. This collection of smallholdings was later given the name of Klerksdorp in honour of the first landdrost (magistrate) of the area, Jacob de Clercq.

Knysna 1882

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
Town on the Knysna Lagoon, at the mouth of the Knysna River, 68 km east of George and 33 km west of Plettenberg Bay. It was formed in 1882 by the amalgamation of two hamlets, Melville, founded in 1825, and Newhaven, founded in 1846. Municipal status was attained in 1881. The name is of Khoekhoen origin and probably means 'ferns' or 'fern-leaves'.

Kokstad 1863

Natal (post 1994 KwaZulu-Natal)
A town in the Harry Gwala District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Kokstad is named after the Griqua chief Adam Kok III who settled here in 1863. Kokstad is the capital town of the East Griqualand region, as it is also the biggest town in this region. It was built around Mount Currie, a local mountain range, by the city's founder Adam Kok III , for whom the town is named. Stad is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for "city". Bhongweni Police Station

Komaggas 1829

Cape (post 1994 Northern Cape)
Settlement 40 km south-west of Springbok and 45 km north of Soebatsfontein, on the Kamaggas River, a tributary of the Buffels River. Founded as a station of the London Missionary Society in 1829, it was taken over by the Rhenish Missionary Society in 1843 and by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1936. Variously explained as 'abundance of maws of animals' and 'place of many wild olive-trees';

Koringberg 1923

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
Village 146 km north-north-east of Cape Town and 17 km north of Moorreesburg. Founded at Warren's Camp in 1923, it was named because it is situated in a wheat growing area. The name means 'wheat mountain' in Afrikaans.

Kraaifontein 1877

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
In 1869 sub-division of farm land started in the area. A railway station was formed in 1876 called "Kraaifontein Junction", followed by formal town development in 1877. The first school was established on 20 January 1908. The Dutch Reformed Church was founded in 1948. In the same year Kraaifontein got its own local authority. In 1954 the "Volkskerk van Afrika (Translated- The nation's church of Africa)" was founded with BJE Appollis being the first preacher. On 16 September 1957, it became a municipality under the first mayor, JP Rossouw

Kuilsrivier 1898

Cape (post 1994 Western Cape)
Kuils River (Afrikaans: Kuilsrivier)

Originally named De Boss, Kuils River was a refreshment post of the Dutch East India Company in 1680, also known as de Kuijlen. In 1700 the farm Leeuwenhof and other parts of de Kuijlen were sold to Olof Bergh. A church was founded by Rhenish Missionary Society in 1843 in Sarepta. A proper road was built in 1845, a railway station in 1862 and a school in 1898. In 1898 stands were sold for residential development. On 4 December 1950 it attained municipal status. The town takes its name from the nearby river, in which there are many pools, or kuile (Dutch for dams)

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