Dhab I SA history

In 1854 the contract of Bloemfontein was signed and the Republic of Orange Free State was founded by the Boers.

As early as 1898, Anton van Wouw had started work on the statue of Paul Kruger which today graces Church Square in Pretoria.

Discrimination policies assumed new urgency with the formation of the South African Native Affairs Commission in 1903.

The following year, indentured Chinese labourers (who were repatriated to their country in 1907) were imported to work on the gold and diamond mines, with the consequence that Black workers' wages were further eroded.

J.H.G. Bosman did pioneering work with the music he composed for Eugene Marais’ ‘Winternag’ in 1908.

These activities culminated in the establishment of the South African Native Convention or National Convention in March 1909, which called for a constitution giving "full and equal rights" for all Blacks, Coloureds, and Indians.

As John Dube said, the congress pursued a policy of "hopeful reliance on the sense of common justice and love of freedom so innate in the British character." Such reliance, however, was proven unfounded by the adoption of the Natives Land Act in 1913.

Their plight was exacrbated in 1914 by the formation of the Afrikaner National Party (NP) under General Hertzog.

After the end of the war in 1918 the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) was formed by dockworkers, spearheaded by a prominent Malawian migrant worker and activist, Clements Kadalie.

In 1919 another deputation to London complained against the Natives Land Act.

Pearling declined with the development of the Japanese cultured-pearl industry and the worldwide economic depression beginning in 1929.

The highlight for most Afrikaners was the launch of the Afrikaans Bible in 1933.

Initially, few women ventured to write, but in 1936 Elisabeth Eybers made her debut as the first female poet in Afrikaans.

After 1945, a few operas were translated into Afrikaans and performed, but opera was to remain a foreign art form for most Afrikaans speakers.

The National Party's institution of apartheid was overtly criticized, and was vehemently protested against. Therefore, when the party won the South African elections of 1948, measures were introduced to give preference to White Afrikaans speakers in terms of employment and business.

Several other centenaries were celebrated with much pomp and circumstance such as the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck (1652) in 1952.

Great Britain, as the protecting power of the then Trucial States, established a separate Political Agency at Abu Dhabi in 1961, removing the sheikhdom from dependence on the political agent at Dubai.

Under an ambitious five-year development plan, inaugurated in 1968, the town was thoroughly modernized.

The latter two states, however, became separately independent (1971). Britain abrogated its earlier treaties with the Trucial States, and the new United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is a leading member, came into being.

An oil refinery on nearby Umm al-Nār Island began production in 1976.

Established in 1984, International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) was created to advance Abu Dhabi’s natural petroleum wealth for the development of the emirate.

Mubadala Development Company followed in 2002 to further diversify the economy.

Since 2006, Masdar has invested in renewable energy projects with a combined value of US$13.5 billion, and today the company is active in more than 30 countries across the world, with projects with a combined capacity of over 5 GW in operation or under development.

The material has been used with their permission (2010), it forms the basis of a permanent exhibition at the Voortrekker Monument on the 'history of Afrikaners in SA'.

Yahsat launches Y1A, its first satellite, providing satellite communications across 64 countries for both public and private customers. Its second satellite, launched in 2012, extends services to an additional 28 countries.

EGA completes its historic project to export its home-grown technology to Aluminium Bahrain after becoming the first UAE industrial company to license its technology internationally in 2016.

Yahsat is currently manufacturing its third satellite, Al Yah 3, planned for launch in 2017.

In 2018, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council became part of Mubadala, doubling the value of the group with its globally diversified portfolio.