Standerton is a large agricultural and commercial town situated on the banks of the Vaal River in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The town lies along the R23 Provincial Route from Greylingstad (officially renamed Nthorwane).
Standerton specialises in cattle, dairy, maize and poultry farming. The town is the seat of the Lekwa Local Municipality in the Gert Sibande District Municipality.
The town was established in 1876 and named after Boer leader Commandant Adriaan Hendrik Stander.
During the First Boer War a British garrison in the town was besieged by the Boers for three months. General Jan Smuts won this seat during elections and went on to assist in setting up the League of Nations.
Standerton lies in what is known as Cosmos Country, the south western area of Mpumalanga that is at the centre of the country’s coal mining.
History
Standerton was founded in 1876 on a farm called Grootverlangen and named after its owner Commandant Adriaan Henrik Stander. The South African Republic’s Volksraad approved the formation of a town at the drift in 1876 and proclaimed in 1878. It was granted municipal status in 1903.
The crossing over the Vaal River, now bridged, was known as Stander’s Drift and a hill close to the town was called Standerskop were also named after Stander.
During the First Boer War (1880–81), a British unit was besieged by the Boer forces who shelled them from the nearby hill, the former holding out until the end of the war in February 1881.
