Speculation
has it that Bloemfontein’s name was derived from the large number of
flowers that grew around an old fountain or spring on a farm which
belonged to a Voortrekker named Johannes Nicolaas Brits.
While
for Brits the requirements were sufficient water and fertile soil, it was
Major Henry Douglas Warden, the British Resident in Griqua territory, who
in 1846 chose to settle in the centrally situated spot in the vast, dry
plains, due to the absence of horse sickness, the spacious open country
and the close proximity of the main route to Winburg. Recently
Bloemfontein has received a new Sotho name: Mangaung – meaning
"place of the cheetahs".
The Bloemfontein Municipality dates to 1850 when Messrs Rex, Fichardt and Holm were appointed temporary councillors following demands in a petition from 26 home-owners. They were to have the right to control the affairs of the town, and the necessary regulations were laid down.
The Bloemfontein Convention, whereby the area between the Orange and the Vaal Rivers gained independence, was signed in 1854, and the Republic of the Orange Free State was born.
Josias Hoffman was elected to serve as its first president. From here on the city progressed in leaps and bounds, and in 1890 the railway line between.
Bloemfontein
and the Cape was completed. It was only later that the extensions to the
Transvaal and Natal lines were completed.
During the Anglo Boer War, M T Steyn was President of the Republic of the Orange Free State, as it was known at the time. In 1880 Bloemfontein became a municipality, with Robert Innes elected as the first mayor. Bloemfontein’s status was considerably enhanced in 1919, when it was named the judicial capital of the Union of South Africa, and even more so when it finally acquired city status in 1945. It was the discovery of gold and the subsequent exploration of the goldfields in the northern region, which shifted the city’s development from that of an agricultural settlement into the steadily thriving commercial and industrial city it is today.
