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Kimberley, the capital of the Northern Cape, is also often called the Diamond Capital of the World and the 'City of Diamonds'. Without the frenzied pace of larger cities, this city offers the lessons learned from the past, the convenience of modern facilities and the promise of a bright future, as its people rally round to ensure its growth and prosperity.

Although the name Kimberley evokes images of glamour and romance, the diamond heyday was an era of blood, sweat and tears, high stakes and ruthless power struggles. Some struck it rich; others found only despair. Many emerged from obscurity to achieve fame, and in some cases, notoriety. Against an unlikely backdrop of heat, dust, flies and a jumble of tents and shacks, spacious homes began to rise from the veld.

Development started in 1871, when diamond deposits were found on the farm Vooruitzig, which belonged to the De Beers brothers. By 1872, a mining town, home to more than 50 000 people, had grown where once only the springbok roamed. At first called “New Rush”, the name of the town was changed to Kimberley in 1873, in honour of the Earl of Kimberley, the British Secretary of State for the colonies at the time.

In 1871 diamonds were discovered on the farm of Johannes Nicolaas and Diederik Arnoldus de Beer. They sold the farm, and although they did not become the owners of the mines, one of the mines inherited their name. Two big mines formed: the De Beers and Kimberley mines. Cecil John Rhodes and Charles Rudd gained control of both mines and merged them, forming De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited in 1888, the company which today controlls virtually all diamonds on Earth.

In 1871 diamonds were discovered on a small hill known as Colesberg Kopje. Within a few months there were over 30 000 men toiling in an area roughly 300 m by 200 m. When the hill had been dug away they simply carried on digging. The result was a big hole. In fact the biggest man-made hole in the world. It was here that the famous 'Star of Africa' was found, a magnificent 83,5 carat diamond. Around the verges of 'The Big Hole' buildings sprang up and kept on expanding. The city of Kimberley was born.

The Big Hole is an astonishing sight. Mined to a depth of about 240 metres, and with a surface area of about 17 hectares and a perimeter of about 1,6 km, it is the largest hand-dug excavation in the world. When work on the mine was suspended on 14 August 1914, a total of 22,5 million tons of earth had been excavated, yielding 2 722 kilograms of diamonds.

The Kimberley Mine Museum is located at the rim of the Big Hole. It is an open air museum, a small village showing the history of diamond mining at Kimberley. A complete little diamond rush town with shops and houses, a church, diggers' tavern, Barney Barnato's Boxing Academy, and the De Beers directors' private railway coach. An exhibition at De Beers Hall displays uncut diamonds and jewelry, including the largest uncut diamond in the world, the '616'. Its name is its weight: 616 carats. Even beter known because of its history is the 'Eureka', the first diamond discovered in South Africa in 1866.

Today, Kimberley is a modern city with broad, tree-lined streets, attractive parks and gardens, comfortable hotels and busy shopping centres. But the extraordinary saga of its past, an aura of adventure and drama, seems ever-present. It's easy to conjure up a picture of the diggers, loafers, gamblers and 'ladies' of ill repute who once inhabited the dusty shanty town.

The Northern Cape is the largest province in South Africa in terms of area, although its total population, estimated at 822 727 in 2001, represents only 1,8% of the country's population, making it the province with the lowest population density (two persons per square kilometre). Most of the province’s inhabitants (70,1%) live in the urban areas of the province. The population is: Coloured (51,6%), African (35,7%), White (12,4%) and Indian (0,3%). Afrikaans is the main language within the province, with just under 70% of the population using it as its home language.

The National Institute for Higher Education was established in June 2003 to coordinate and facilitate the provision of public higher education in the province. It is with great pride that the Northern Cape Province can now boast of its own tertiary institution and will now be able to offer its people higher education and skills needed to improve their lives.

The National Institute of Higher Education Northern Cape is the first new institute of higher learning founded in the democratic South Africa. During September 2003 it was officially recognised by Parliament as a fully-fledged university.

The diamond engagement ring tradition could be the greatest PR scam ever invented. Diamonds became engagement stones around the end of the recession in the 1930s: De Beers spent about $1,7 million a year to establish the diamond engagement ring as a sacrament, a spiritual thing: the slogan ‘a diamonds is forever’ was coined in in 1947 and was voted slogan of the century by Advertising Age magazine in 1999. They got Hollywood involved by having the female stars wearing diamonds and by creating films like Marilyn Monroe's ‘Diamonds are a girl's best friend'. That advertising campaign created the myth.

Kimberley has an average of 9,4 hours of sunshine per day throughout the year and an annual rainfall of about 450 mm.

Kimberley boasts many firsts like the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting on 2 September 1882 (which was before those of London); the first international rugby tournament in South Africa in 1989; the first city in South Africa to switch to an automatic telephone exchange; and it housed the country's first Stock Exchange.

South Africa's first School of Mines was established in Kimberley in 1896, and was transferred to Johannesburg early this century where it became the foundation of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Surrounding Kimberley are many memorials and sites of some important battles of the Anglo-Boer war, most notably the Siege of Kimberley in 1899 with the famous 'Long Cecil' on display, and the battlefield site of Magersfontein where Boer General Piet Cronje used trench warfare for the first time.

Solomon Tsekisho Plaatje (1876-1932) was a politician, journalist, human rights campaigner, novelist and translator at the turn of the previous century. He was one of the most influential of early African newspaper editors and the first person ever to record Nkosi Sikelele i Africa. The Sol Plaatje Educational Trust was set up in 1991 and is operating from the house in Angel Street, Kimberley, where Sol Plaatje lived during his last years.

Kimberley Municipality administers an area of approximately 9040 Ha and a total population of approximately 211 000 inhabitants.