| Ventersdorp | |
| Pushpin Map: | South Africa North West#South Africa#Africa |
| Coordinates: | -26.3167°N 75°W |
| Subdivision Name: | South Africa |
| Subdivision Name1: | North West |
| Subdivision Name2: | Dr Kenneth Kaunda |
| Subdivision Name3: | JB Marks |
| Subdivision Type4: | Main Place |
| Established Title: | Established |
| Established Date: | 1866 |
| Leader Title: | Councillor |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 53.88 |
| Population Total: | 4204 |
| Population As Of: | 2011 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Demographics Type1: | Racial makeup (2011) |
| Demographics1 Title1: | Black African |
| Demographics1 Info1: | 51.4% |
| Demographics1 Title2: | Coloured |
| Demographics1 Info2: | 5.5% |
| Demographics1 Title3: | Indian/Asian |
| Demographics1 Info3: | 2.3% |
| Demographics1 Title4: | White |
| Demographics1 Info4: | 40.2% |
| Demographics1 Title5: | Other |
| Demographics1 Info5: | 0.5% |
| Demographics Type2: | First languages (2011) |
| Demographics2 Title1: | Afrikaans |
| Demographics2 Info1: | 46.6% |
| Demographics2 Title2: | Tswana |
| Demographics2 Info2: | 40.5% |
| Demographics2 Title3: | English |
| Demographics2 Info3: | 4.3% |
| Demographics2 Title4: | Xhosa |
| Demographics2 Info4: | 2.8% |
| Demographics2 Title5: | Other |
| Demographics2 Info5: | 5.8% |
| Timezone1: | SAST |
| Utc Offset1: | +2 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code (street) |
| Postal Code: | 2710 |
| Postal2 Code Type: | PO box |
| Postal2 Code: | 2710 |
| Area Code Type: | Area code |
| Area Code: | 018 |
Ventersdorp is a town of about 4,200 people in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, North West Province, South Africa. It was the seat of the defunct Ventersdorp Local Municipality until 2016.
Ventersdorp is centrally located, making it easier to access more prominent urban towns such as Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Potchefstroom and Rustenburg. The township (or Location) of Tshing houses most of the town's blacks and coloureds. Tshing has a diamond mine nearby that was owned by a town councillor in the early 1990s. Tshing Location has one high school: Thuto Boswa High School. The smaller township Toevlug has Coloured residents, some of whom have attend the former whites-only Afrikaans High School after the end of Apartheid since 1995.
The town grew around a Dutch Reformed Church that was established in 1866.[2] [3] It was named after Johannes Venter who owned the farm Roodepoort and the land the church was built on.[2] [4] It was proclaimed as a town in June 1887.[4] The Mill on the town was built by Richrd Carew Wilson in 1866
Afrikaner nationalist and white supremacist Eugène Terre'Blanche was born in Ventersdorp[5] [6] and the town is the base of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), the far-right white separatist political organisation and former paramilitary group that Terre'Blanche founded. The town was the site of the 1991 "Battle of Ventersdorp" in which lethal clashes occurred between members of the apartheid government security forces and the AWB ahead of a scheduled appearance by then State President F. W. de Klerk.