The proximity of the North-West Province to Johannesburg and Pretoria has long made it a popular weekend getaway for city-dwellers, resulting in a broad range of affordable accommodation and activities geared to every age group.
Iconic Sun City with its monster casino (the second largest i ...
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The proximity of the North-West Province to Johannesburg and Pretoria has long made it a popular weekend getaway for city-dwellers, resulting in a broad range of affordable accommodation and activities geared to every age group.
Iconic Sun City with its monster casino (the second largest in the world outside the US) is probably the region’s best known tourism product and, love it or hate it, you have to be impressed by it. Built in 1979 in the then-homeland of Bophuthatswana, Sun City’s primary purpose was to provide entertainment that was banned by the apartheid government. This consisted principally of gambling and strip shows, both of which rapidly found an immediate large following amongst the thrill-starved Calvinists of the reef.
Nowadays such naughtiness is permitted country-wide, but Sun City has continued to reinvent itself with ever more difficult golf courses (with more and more crocodiles), bigger and better luxury hotels and even a beach with a surfing wave in the middle of the bush.
The nearby Pilanesberg National Park is home to the Big Five, as is Madikwe, further north, which launched a major restocking project in 1991, adding predators only in 1996 when game levels had picked up. It has the distinction of being the only place in the world with a significant and stable population of wild dog (also known as Cape hunting dog or painted dog).
Further east in the province lie the Magaliesberg mountains and Hartbeespoort Dam, both of which have been offering wholesome family holidays to South Africans for generations. There are nature reserves, golf courses and all manner of love-them-or-hate-them arts and crafts in lay-bys and roadside stalls.
Mining makes up nearly 25% of the province’s economy with the remainder being tourism and agriculture. The vast cattle ranches have earned North-West a nickname – “The Texas of South Africa”.
Oppikoppi Easter Festival (March/April) Northam – arts, culture and music.
Oppikoppi Bushveld Festival (August) – more arts culture and music!
Woodstock (Sept) Hartebeeshoek – dance, DJs an extreme sports events.
Herman Charles Bosman Weekend (Oct) Groot Marico - a celebration of the writings of a genius.
Features, creatures & Flower power
Sun City is the major tourism feature of the region – a fantasy wonderland of sports, theatre, drama, revues, concerts and a vast casino. The flavours of Sun City include a food hall with restaurants to match every taste from Jordanian to Japanese and from curry to Kentucky. It may be over the top but it works.
Sunflowers dominate the Bophirima region – South Africa is the world’s 10th largest producer. Sunflowers are helioptropic (they follow the sun) only in the bud stage. So once you can see the flower, it will be pointing east, which might be handy for navigation if your GPS is confused.
Bushveld is the term for an area characterised by long grass, scattered with patches of trees and bushes. The grass is green in summer and brown in winter. The term applies specifically to the North-West and southern Limpopo Province although it is often incorrectly applied to the Lowveld and southern Kruger Park, which is technically, for the most part thornveld (but then “Jock of the Thornveld” doesn’t sound so good, does it?)
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