Witbank
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Witbank is situated on the highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for White Ridge and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wagon transport drivers rested. Witbank is in the coal mining area with 22 collieries in an area no more than 40 km in any direction. There are a number of coal power stations nearby, as well as a steel mill requiring coal, Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation.
Witbank was established 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.
In the 1994 AWB invasion of Bophuthatswana Witbank was one of the right- wing strongholds where AWB commandos were called in from.
In 2006, Witbank was renamed Emalahleni.
[edit] Trivia
- Winston Churchill, then a young soldier-journalist, hid in a colliery near Witbank after his escape from Pretoria during the Second Boer War.
[edit] External links
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