The Royal Bafokeng are descendants of Sotho settlers who displaced the local tribes from the region, which they came to call 'place of dew' (Phokeng).

In the early 1800s, the Bafokeng and other Tswana communities were conquered in a series of devastating wars launched by an offshoot of the Zulu kingdom, called the Matebele.

As the Boers settled in the area, called their settlement Rustenburg because they had relatively friendly relations with their Bafokeng allies in the area, and after the many violent military conflicts with other African chiefdoms, such as the Matebele, they believed they could rest ("rusten" in Dutch) in this settlement, whose name literally means "Resting Town.

Rustenburg was established in 1851 as an administrative centre for an Afrikaner farming area that produced citrus fruit, tobacco, peanuts, sunflower seeds, maize, wheat and cattle.

Rustenburg was the home of Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic, who bought a 5 square kilometer farm to the north-west of the town in 1863.

The city was known for its conservative character during the apartheid era, and attracted large campaign rallies by the National Party.

In the Apartheid era, forced removals of old settlements were on the basis of racial divide whereas now it is done for installation of massive mining operations sometimes engulfing entire villages.

The majority of people in the region 20 years after the fall of apartheid still live in abject poverty despite the massive profits yielded by the platinum royalties.

Agriculture in the region has been in constant decline since the decimation of the vast citrus estates of Rustenburg in the 1970s and 1980s due to pollution from increased smelting and beneficiating processes by mines.

During this conference, professor Willie Jonker of the University of Stellenbosch made this confession on behalf of the entire DRC: "[I] confess before you and before the Lord, not only my own sin and guilt, and my personal responsibility for the political, social, economic and structural wrongs that have been done to many of you and the results [from] which you and our whole country are still suffering, but vicariously I dare also to do that in the name of the NGK [the white DRC], of which I am a member, and for the Afrikaans people as a whole.

"[13]The conference finally resulted in the signing of the Rustenburg Declaration, which moved strongly toward complete confession, forgiveness, and restitution.

Rustenburg has much to entertain which include Golf Courses, hot Air ballooning, mountain climbing, hiking, the famous Ten Flags Theme park and much more.

A number of Anglo-Boer and ethnic war battles took place in the area with the districts of Koster, Swartruggens and Rustenburg featuring battlefields, memorial graves and ruined forts.

[citation needed] Rustenburg has been highly dependent on mining which is responsible for more than 65% of local GDP and 50% of all direct jobs.

This includes the redevelopment and rejuvenation of existing CBD areas to new world-class commercial centres with a conspicuous signature skyline incorporating a plethora of high-rise landmark buildings and skyscrapers as part of the smart space planning and smart maximization of land usage that sustainably creates breathing room for people to move, live, work and play.

[21][22][23][24][25] As at the end of the 2017/18 financial year, the Rustenburg Metropolitan had spent about R2.7 billion on the upgrading of old and the construction of new public transport infrastructure in and around the city.

[29] While Bus rapid transit is one of the components of the RRT system design, it will not be an exclusively BRT driven operation.

It is located close to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve and mainly serves tourists visiting the Sun City resort.

There is a possibility of upgrading the existing Rustenburg Railway network to better cater to passengers as part of the city's revitalization.

[35] Previously, the railway lines served long-distance passengers, but are now only used for transporting platinum and chrome concentrates to smelters.