Sol Plaatje University –
A New University in a Historic City
Why Kimberley Matters
Over the years, we have noticed that many of our guests—whether visiting Kimberley for business or leisure—have wondered why this remarkable city has played such an important role in South Africa's history over the past 160 years.
These pages invite you on a coffee-table journey through Kimberley's past, from the discovery of the Eureka Diamond in 1867 and the Great Diamond Rush, through wars, political change and the rise of the world's diamond industry, to the city we know today. They are not intended to be an academic history, but rather an enjoyable introduction to the people, places and events that shaped Kimberley.
So, make yourself comfortable, pour a cappuccino or a cup of chai, and enjoy exploring the remarkable story of one of South Africa's most fascinating cities.
Sol Plaatje University’s Central Campus in the heart of Kimberley, photographed from Scanlan Street. The distinctive curved brick façade forms part of the university’s modern inner-city campus, developed from 2014 onwards. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
A University for the Northern Cape
For much of its history, Kimberley possessed many of the institutions expected of an important regional capital—museums, libraries, schools, hospitals, courts and government offices—but it did not have its own public university. That changed in 2013 with the establishment of Sol Plaatje University (SPU), the first public university in the Northern Cape and one of the first entirely new universities created in democratic South Africa.
Sol Plaatje University was formally launched in Kimberley on 19 September 2013 by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande. Classes began on 17 February 2014 with just 141 students studying Education, Retail Management and Information Technology. By 2026, enrolment had grown to more than 9,000 students. SPU's significance, however, lies in more than its rapid growth. From the beginning, it was deliberately conceived as a city university—an institution woven into Kimberley's existing streets, buildings, public spaces and cultural life rather than isolated behind the gates of a suburban campus.
Connections to the Past
An interesting historical symmetry lies in Kimberley finally gaining its own university. In 1896, more than a century before SPU was established, the South African School of Mines opened in Kimberley, with classrooms in the building now known as the Hull Street Theatre.
As the centre of South Africa's mining industry shifted towards the Witwatersrand, the School moved to Johannesburg in 1904 and became part of the institutional lineage that ultimately produced the University of the Witwatersrand. Kimberley had therefore helped give birth to university-level mining education in South Africa, lost that institution to Johannesburg, and more than a century later finally gained a university of its own.
The choice of name for the University was especially appropriate. Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was one of Kimberley's most remarkable citizens—a writer, journalist, linguist, translator and political leader whose intellectual life was closely connected with the city. He became the first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress, later the African National Congress, and was one of the leading Black intellectuals of his generation.
His writings, translations and journalism reflected a lifelong belief in education, language and the power of knowledge. Today, Sol Plaatje's former home in Angel Street survives as the Sol Plaatje Museum & Library, while his grave lies in West End Cemetery and his bronze statue stands in the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens. The university bearing his name has become perhaps the most substantial living memorial to his legacy.
A University Built Into Kimberley
Rather than being developed on a single enclosed site, SPU occupies a combination of existing buildings and purpose-built structures spread across Kimberley. The North and Central campuses form an increasingly important academic precinct within the historic city centre, while the South Campus at Hoffe Park provides student accommodation and major sporting facilities.
This approach allowed older buildings to find new purposes while introducing contemporary university architecture into a cityscape dominated for generations by Victorian and Edwardian buildings. The result is one of the most significant changes to Kimberley's built environment in many decades.
New Architecture for a New University
Creating an entirely new university gave architects a rare opportunity to develop a distinctive twenty-first-century campus. SPU's new buildings were designed to respond to Kimberley's climate through natural light, shaded walkways, courtyards, and flexible interior spaces. Artwork and architectural details also reflect aspects of the Northern Cape's history and culture.
The contrast is striking. Few South African universities occupy an urban setting where students can walk within a few hundred metres of award-winning contemporary architecture, a developing botanical garden, nationally significant monuments, a national art gallery and one of the country's most important surviving diamond-industry buildings.
Across Sol Plaatje Drive from the Great Hall is Luka Jantjie House. This building represents a different part of the University's architectural story. Formerly associated with the Northern Cape Legislature and the National Institute for Higher Education, the building was incorporated into SPU and named after the nineteenth-century Batlhaping leader Luka Jantjie.
Luka Jantjie House, the administrative headquarters of Sol Plaatje University's North Campus, seen from Sol Plaatje Drive. Rising behind the building is the Harry Oppenheimer House, while immediately to the right (out of view) are the Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens and the University's Great Hall. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
Luka Jantjie House on Sol Plaatje University's North Campus in Kimberley. The building previously formed part of the Northern Cape Legislature complex and was later incorporated into the University and renamed in honour of nineteenth-century Batlhaping leader Luka Jantjie. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
Within the Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens stands one of SPU's most important recent buildings—the Great Hall. Located on the North Campus opposite Luka Jantjie House, the Hall provides a major venue for graduations, conferences, examinations and public events. Its location is particularly significant. Rather than standing within an isolated university precinct, this major contemporary building overlooks one of Kimberley's oldest public gardens, placing the University's ceremonial life directly alongside the city's historic memorial landscape.
The front of the Great Hall viewed across the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens. Harry Oppenheimer House rises behind the hall, while Luka Jantjie House stands to the left, illustrating how historic and contemporary university buildings now form an integrated precinct. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
The Great Hall at Sol Plaatje University's North Campus, viewed from the Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens at the rear. The newly completed Great Hall became a major university venue in 2025; it has become the University's principal venue for graduation ceremonies, examinations, conferences and major public events. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
The University Square is located at Central Campus. It is surrounded on three sides by high buildings of different architectural styles and can be readily accessed on the fourth side from Scanlan Street. This public urban square connects prominent mixed-use structures on the campus.
The Economic and Management Sciences Building is one of the prominent structures overlooking University Square. Its layered façades respond to Kimberley's harsh sun and different orientations, while the western elevation facing the square gives the building much of its distinctive character. A second building is the Moroka Halls of Residence. This mixed-use, multifunctional building includes student residences, a dining hall, teaching facilities, and office and retail space.
Moroka Student Residence forms part of the University's modern residential precinct, providing accommodation within walking distance of lecture halls, the library and student facilities. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
Students gather in University Square outside the Economic and Management Sciences Building during a campus event. Sol Plaatje University has become a vibrant academic community, attracting students from across South Africa and neighbouring countries. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
At the far end of University Square stands one of SPU's most recognisable buildings, the six-storey Library and Resource Centre. Designed as far more than a conventional library, it combines books and digital resources with teaching rooms, study areas, social spaces and places for both individual and collaborative learning. The building has become a focal point of Central Campus and received international recognition when it won a 2019 International Architecture Award.
Inside the shady environment, which forms part of the Library & Resource Centre at Sol Plaatje University. Photo: © Designworkshop
The Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens
One of the most interesting developments has been SPU's growing relationship with the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens. After an agreement to sell was concluded in 2023, the University took ownership of the gardens in February 2024. The gardens contain some of Kimberley's best-known monuments, including the Diamond Diggers Memorial and the bust of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer.
The Diamond Diggers Memorial in the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens. The bronze figures are currently awaiting the reinstatement of the large diamond sieve that they traditionally hold above their heads. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
The Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial within the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens. The memorial has become part of Sol Plaatje University's North Campus while remaining one of Kimberley's important historic landmarks. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
SPU has begun rejuvenating the area as both a public heritage space and a botanical and educational resource. Plans include a botanical garden showcasing plants suited to the Northern Cape's arid environment, together with improved irrigation, lighting, security and other infrastructure. The gardens therefore occupy an unusual position between past and future: a historic civic landscape containing monuments to Kimberley's earlier generations, now being incorporated into the life of a modern university.
Landscaped section of the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens. Sol Plaatje University is restoring and reimagining the gardens as both a public heritage space and a botanical teaching resource, focusing on indigenous plants. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
Harry Oppenheimer House – From Diamonds to Education
Few buildings illustrate Kimberley's changing identity as powerfully as Harry Oppenheimer House. The 14-storey building was constructed for De Beers and came into use in 1974 as part of the company's diamond-sorting and sales operations. For decades it was closely associated with the industry that had shaped Kimberley's economy and international reputation. After De Beers relocated its Sightholder Sales operation to Johannesburg in 2023, the company donated Harry Oppenheimer House to Sol Plaatje University.
SPU undertook to retain the building's historic name and indicated that it would accommodate university offices and other institutional activities. Importantly, one floor is intended to preserve and interpret the building's diamond-sorting history as a museum space, while the building may also support future geology and mining-related teaching and research. The transfer is rich in symbolism. A building created for Kimberley's dominant nineteenth- and twentieth-century industry has become part of the institution increasingly associated with the city's twenty-first-century future.
Harry Oppenheimer House, donated by De Beers to Sol Plaatje University in 2023. The 14-storey building was for decades closely associated with Kimberley’s diamond-sorting and sales operations and is now being incorporated into the University’s expanding city-centre campus. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
South Campus and University Sport
SPU's development extends beyond the city centre. The South Campus at Hoffe Park has become a hub for student accommodation and university sport. A multipurpose sporting facility opened in 2023, followed by a High-Performance Sport Centre in 2024.
The University supports a wide range of sporting codes, with rugby becoming particularly visible. SPU's team, the Gemmies, competes in the FNB Varsity Shield and has used Kimberley's Suzuki Stadium for home matches, linking the University's growing sporting culture with one of the city's established major venues.
Sol Plaatje University's South Campus at Hoffe Park. The campus is home to the University's expanding sports facilities and High-Performance Sport Centre, while SPU's rugby team also plays home fixtures at nearby Suzuki Stadium. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
A University Shaped by the Northern Cape
SPU has deliberately developed academic areas that reflect the Northern Cape's character and needs. These include teacher education, information and communication technology, data science, heritage studies, biological sciences and agriculture. Agriculture is particularly relevant in a province characterised by extreme temperatures, low rainfall and pressure on scarce water resources. SPU's work in agricultural sciences therefore has the potential to contribute directly to farming under water-stressed conditions.
Health sciences may become another area of future growth. Parts of today's South Campus were previously used to house students of the Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College, and SPU has identified Therapeutic Health Sciences among its future academic programmes. In this way, the Northern Cape is not simply the place where the University happens to be located. Its climate, industries, heritage and social needs increasingly help shape what SPU teaches and researches.
SPU and Kimberley's Educational and Cultural Institutions
The University's city-centre location places it within walking distance of some of Kimberley's most important cultural institutions, including William Humphreys Art Gallery on Cullinan Crescent, the Sol Plaatje Library & Museum on Angel Street, and the Africana Library on Du Toitspan Road.
The William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG) stands immediately beside the Northern Cape Urban TVET City Campus and directly opposite the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens and SPU's Great Hall. Although WHAG remains an independent public art museum rather than part of Sol Plaatje University, its position places it at the heart of an emerging educational and cultural precinct in central Kimberley. SPU's Faculty of Humanities has collaborated with WHAG on exhibitions, lectures, and other public programmes, while the close proximity of the University, the Art Gallery, and other educational institutions creates significant opportunities for teaching, research, and public engagement.
Similar opportunities exist across the city. Kimberley's museums, archives, archaeological resources and historic buildings provide an unusually rich environment for students and researchers in heritage and the humanities. Few South African universities have such a concentration of historical material almost literally outside their doors.
The William Humphreys Art Gallery viewed along Cullinan Crescent. The Northern Cape Urban TVET City Campus lies immediately beyond the gallery, while Sol Plaatje University's Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens and Great Hall are directly opposite. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026
Northern Cape Urban TVET City Campus beside the William Humphreys Art Gallery. Directly across the road are Sol Plaatje University's Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens and Great Hall, illustrating the growing concentration of educational and cultural institutions in central Kimberley. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026
A Living Memorial to Sol Plaatje
Sol Plaatje is remembered throughout Kimberley. His former home survives as a museum. His grave is protected as a heritage site. His bronze statue overlooks the Oppenheimer Gardens. But the university bearing his name is different. It is not a static memorial, but a living institution filled each year with thousands of students studying, debating, researching and preparing for their futures. For a man who devoted so much of his life to writing, language, learning and the exchange of ideas, there could hardly be a more fitting legacy.
The Sol Plaatje Museum & Library at 32 Angel Street, Kimberley, preserves the former home of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje. The house lies only a short distance from the university that now bears his name. Photo: © Richard Jones, 2026.
Bronze statue of Sol Plaatje seated on his monument in the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens in Kimberley Photo: © Richard Jones, 2010
A University Spreading Through the City
Perhaps the most ambitious part of the SPU story is the way the University continues to spread through Kimberley's existing urban landscape. Its North, Central and South campuses were deliberately distributed across the city rather than enclosed behind a single perimeter. Buildings such as Harry Oppenheimer House, public spaces such as the Oppenheimer Gardens, and nearby institutions such as the William Humphreys Art Gallery are gradually creating a wider academic and cultural precinct.
There has long been a vision of stronger pedestrian links between the University's buildings and central Kimberley's museums, galleries and heritage sites. The Oppenheimer Gardens, Civic Centre, WHAG and university campuses already form a natural cluster, while the Africana Library, Sol Plaatje Library & Museum, McGregor Museum and, further west, the Big Hole Open Mine Museum form part of the wider historic city. Whether all of these places will eventually be joined through a formal pedestrian corridor remains to be seen. But the underlying idea is already clear.
Rather than building a university alongside Kimberley, SPU is becoming an integral part of the city.
Visitor Information
Location:
Central Campus: 24–26 Scanlan Street,
North Campus: 10 Jan Smuts Boulevard,
South Campus: 150 Reservoir Road.
What to look for: Contemporary university architecture, the Library and Student Resource Centre, Luka Jantjie House, the Great Hall, Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens, Harry Oppenheimer House and the integration of the University's North and Central campuses into Kimberley's historic city centre.
Combine your visit with: The Sol Plaatje bronze statue, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Sol Plaatje Museum & Library, Africana Library, Kimberley Club, and other historic buildings in central Kimberley.
Website: www.spu.ac.za
Continue Exploring Kimberley
Whether your interests lie in history, culture, dining, shopping, entertainment, or simply discovering somewhere new, we hope these guides help you make the most of your time in Kimberley. If you're planning a visit to the City that Sparkles, Solomon Edwardian Guest House offers elegant accommodation in the historic suburb of Beaconsfield. Ideally situated for business and leisure travellers alike, The Solomon provides a comfortable base from which to explore.