Eleven South African Towns in Order of Founding, from Paarl to Vereeniging

Established in 1657 after a Dutch East India Company official named a granite outcrop for the way it glistened after rain, Paarl takes its name from the Dutch word for pearl. French Huguenot settlers arrived in 1688, and the town is now the largest in the Cape Winelands.

Founded on 25 April 1804 by the landdrost Jacob Glen Cuyler and first named Uitenhage, it became a municipality in 1877 and was renamed Kariega in 2021. It is home to South Africa's largest car factory, a Volkswagen assembly plant.

Established in 1811 and named after King George III, this city sits on the Garden Route between the Outeniqua Mountains and the Indian Ocean. It is the administrative and commercial hub of the Garden Route District Municipality.

Voortrekkers settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit river here in 1837 to 1838, making it one of the oldest European settlements north of the Vaal River. Gold found in the district in 1885 drew a rush of prospectors.

Voortrekkers founded it in 1839 after their conflict with the Zulu Kingdom and named it for the leaders Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz. In 1893 a young lawyer named Mohandas Gandhi was thrown off a first class train carriage at its railway station.

Established in 1850 and named after the Spanish wife of Cape Colony governor Sir Harry Smith, it was renamed uMnambithi in March 2024. The siege of Ladysmith lasted 118 days from November 1899 to February 1900.

Founded in 1852 and settled by the Barolong people under Molema Tawana, it served as capital of the Bechuanaland Protectorate from 1894 until 1965. It became famous during the 217-day Siege of Mafeking and was renamed from Mafikeng to Mahikeng in February 2010.

Established in 1864 on the Ncandu River as the fourth settlement founded in Natal after Durban, Weenen and Pietermaritzburg, it was named for the fifth Duke of Newcastle. Coal and the railway's arrival in 1890 brought prosperity, and ArcelorMittal steelworks now sit among its industrial areas.

Voortrekkers formally established it on the Klein Olifants River in 1864 under the name Nasareth, and it was renamed Middelburg in 1872 for its position midway between Pretoria and Lydenburg. The Columbus Stainless steel plant was built here in 1965.

The city was founded in 1890 and grew once the railway from Pretoria reached it in 1894. Its name was Witbank, Afrikaans for white ridge, until the municipality was renamed in 2006 to eMalahleni, meaning place of coal, and more than twenty collieries operate within its boundary.

Established in 1892 after coal was discovered on the Leeuwkuil farm in 1879, it grew into an industrial center producing iron, steel and pipes. The Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended the Second Boer War, was signed here in 1902.