The ‘immeasurable wooded plain’ (Delegorgue's 1843 depiction of the bushveld) which we mentioned in the Introduction was radically transformed over the course of the ensuing 150 years. Commercial agriculture had long been practised along the Marico valley, the undulating lands between the towns of Zeerust and Swartruggens, and the fertile plains surrounding Rustenburg. The bushveld had been tamed, although in pockets it still retains its rustic charm as captured in the quixotic works of the novelist Herman Charles Bosman. However, a number of new and salient features become visible. The first are the many mines that scar the countryside around Rustenburg in the controversial ‘platinum belt’ of South Africa's mining industry, the site of long-running labour and social unrest and violence that ultimately led to the Marikana shootings. The second are the numerous game parks and reserves that form the basis for the North West Province's tourist industry. The two major game reserves are the Madikwe Park to the west, adjacent to the border with Botswana, and in the east the Pilanesberg (and the adjoining Sun City entertainment centre), which occupies all of the fertile volcanic terrain of the Pilanesburg crater. There has even been talk of joining up the two to form an extensive conservation reserve.

Whereas many black people still live under the nominal control of tribal authorities (see Map 4), increasingly, especially in the mining districts around Rustenburg, large numbers of workers from other parts of the country have set up homes. As the following account makes clear, economic success and advancement has had the effect of heightening ethnic consciousness, leading in turn to even more intensified power struggles between factions of royal families, between sub-ethnic factions, and between commoners and the traditional holders of power. These ongoing transformational developments, which now define the political, economic and environmental face of much of the wider Rustenburg region, are discussed below.

Mining and ‘traditional communities’: The BaFokeng Inc, ‘the richest tribe in Africa’

How the baFokeng successfully obtained an equitable share of the royalties from Impala Platinum has been traced in the preceding chapter. However, in the new millennium, and with the worldwide platinum boom of 1996-2008, the baFokeng were able to emerge as major corporate players in the mining industry.