Senwes Scenario December 2016 / January 2017 | Page 10

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AREA F O C U S

WELKOM

In Circles!
“IN 400 METRES AT THE
ROUNDABOUT, TAKE THE
THIRD EXIT”. THIS IS MY
GPS-DESCRIPTION OF
WELKOM, PERFECT IN ONE
SINGLE SENTENCE AS I
TRIED TO NAVIGATE THE
CITY’S APPROXIMATELY
33 TRAFFIC CIRCLES. NO
WONDER THE CITY IS
KNOWN AS THE CITY OF
CIRCLES! THE BEAUTIFUL
GARDENS ON THE CIRCLES, THE HUGE PALM
TREES AND BEAUTIFUL
PURPLE JACARANDA
TREES MAKE ONE UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS “A
CITY IN A GARDEN”.

AUBREY KRUGER

HISTORY
Welkom was founded on 15 April
1947 and became a city 21 years
later. During the late nineties the
city celebrated its 50th birthday
and more celebrations will certainly be planned for 2022, when the
city of gold (ironically) will celebrate its 75th (diamond) birthday.
TORNADO AND EARTHQUAKE
Most of us remember 1990 as
the year when Nelson Mandela
was released. However, this year
holds other memories for Welkom
inhabitants. On 20 March 1990
Welkom was hit by a tornado,
a huge 240 km long an 1,7 km
wide storm. Later that year, on 26
September, the city was hit by an
earthquake of 4.2 on the Richter
scale.

MINIMUM STOP STREETS
AND TRAFFIC LIGHTS
The reason for the minimum
number of stops and the lack of
traffic lights is to ensure smooth
traffic flow, thereby saving time. It
was the brainchild of Grandfather
Oppenheimer - a system of circles
as used in Europe.
CITY OF GOLD
It is definitely a city of gold, since
approximately 21% of the gold
sales of the free world come from
this area.

City of Sports

PHAKISA
Phakisa is the world famous racetrack of 4.24 km. It has a 2.4 km
oval track and is a replica of the
Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the
USA.

Purple jacarandas
add colour to the
city of Welkom.

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DEC 2016/JAN 2017 • SENWES Scenario