A farm on the Highveld

 
W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - ©Maree Clarkson

 

The Highveld is a high plateau region of inland South Africa which is largely home to the largest metropolitan area in the country, the Gauteng City Region, which accounts for one-third of South Africa's population.

The Highveld constitutes parts of the Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, and Limpopo provinces, and virtually all of Gauteng and the northern Free State. The Highveld is bordered by the Bushveld and the Lowveld in the north, northeast, and northwest, the Drakensberg mountains to the east and southeast, the Kalahari desert in the west, and the Great Karoo to the southwest. The Highveld covers an area of almost 400,000 km², or roughly thirty percent of South Africa's land area.

The Highveld rainy season occurs in summer, with substantial afternoon thunderstorms being typical occurrences in November, December, and January. Frost occurs in winter.

Cities located on the Highveld include Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Vereeniging, Welkom, Carletonville, and the cities of the West Rand and East Rand. The diamond-mining city of Kimberley lies on the border of the Highveld and the southeastern Kalahari.

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