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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