Roodepoort Central Rotary Club SA was chartered on the 4 November 1974 in district 9300 and currently has 33 members. We meet once a week on a Tuesday evening in a venue room of a local restaurant. Our youngest member is aged 27 whilst our oldest member is 85. Although our members are predominantly males we currently have 4 female Rotarians and very active Ann's.
Roodepoort our City:
Roodepoort is a city in South Africa located on the Southern tip of Africa. South Africa is fondly known as 'the rainbow nation' and comprises of diverse cultures, religions and skin colours from very dark to very fair. Our early ancestors comprise of the various indigenous Tribal Groups, the British and Dutch settlers of the 1650's, slaves from Malaya, Indonesia, Madagascar and West Africa and the Indians, contracted in many years later, from India to work the sugar cane plantations.
We have 11 official languages, 9 of these the native languages of the various tribes of indigenous people: Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, Sepedi, Siswati, Setswana, Tsonga, Venda, Sotho, English and Afrikaans(a derivative of Dutch, French and Malay).
'Roodepoort' our City is nicknamed 'The Summit City' at 6000ft (1800 meters) above sea level. Nestled in the rolling hills of Roodepoort and less than 5km from where we meet is the Kloofendal Nature Reserve rated as a model of urban conservation. This area boasts 132 flowering plants, 52 indigenous trees and 60 species of grass. Not only is this the habitat of 120 species of birds but is home to small game (reedbuck, duikers, hares, dassies, guinea fowl, antelope and butterflies) and is the site of the original Confidence Reef Mine, where Gold was first discovered in 1884 by Fredrick Struben which was the start of the famous Witwatersrand Goldfields. Roodepoort grew from a tented gold mining camp of 1886 to city status in 1997.
Not far from the reserve is the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden where (70m high) at the top of the beautiful Witpoortjie Falls on the Crocodile River is the nest of one of our most famous couples, a pair of rare Black Eagles.
They feed on the small game of the Kloofendal reserve. Four years ago a crisis developed when the magnificent male disappeared, threatening the 40 year old breeding program, as these eagles normally mate for life. Fortunately the female took charge and disappeared for a while, returning with a young male and has continued the breeding cycle ever since. This breeding pair is unique to our area and unfortunately they are under stress as a result of urbanisation.
Whilst many South Africans still embrace their traditional cultures, through education and equal opportunities many are becoming more westernised in their way of life. South Africa is rather Americanised in many ways from MacDonald's, to shopping malls, freeways, toll roads, sky rise buildings, and 'first world' communications technology. Whilst many people work in the open plan work environments of the large Corporate Business, Small Enterprise is encouraged and Informal Traders play a significant role in day to day activities. However life to those, in our rural areas is as simple and unaffected by urbanisation as it has always been. It is in these rural areas that tribal customs and life styles are still found.
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