Roughly 45.9% of people in the city are Sepedi speakers. The population in 2011 was about 130,000.

The city was host to 52nd national conference of the African National Congress, held in December 2007 and saw Jacob Zuma voted as President of the ANC. The town officially became a city on 23 April 1992 on 25 February 2005, the government declared the official name of the city as Polokwane, a name that was generally in use by the speakers of Northern Sotho. The British built a concentration camp at Pietersburg during the Boer War to incarcerate almost 4,000 Boer women and children. This settlement had to be abandoned because of clashes with the local tribes ( Langa & Ledwaba clans), they founded a new town in 1886 and named it 'Pietersburg' in honour of Voortrekker leader Petrus Jacobus Joubert. In the 1840s, Voortrekkers under the leadership of Andries Potgieter established Zoutpansbergdorp, a town 100 km (62 mi) to the northwest. It was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

It is South Africa's largest urban centre north of Gauteng. Polokwane ( UK: / ˌ p ɒ l ə ˈ k w ɑː n ɪ/, meaning 'Sanctuary' in Northern Sotho ), also known as Pietersburg, is a city and the capital of the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

Woodlands township tennis