Is the Ventersdorp Rift System of Southern Africa related to a continental collision between the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe Cratons at 2.64 Ga ago?

Rocks of the Ventersdorp Supergroup were deposited in a system of northeast trending grabens on the Kaapvaal Craton approximately 2.64 Ga ago contemporary with a continental collision between the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe Cratons. We suggest that it was this collision that initiated the Ventersdorp rifting. Individual grabens strike at high angles toward the continental collision zone now exposed in the Limpopo Province where late orogenic left-lateral strike-slip faulting and anatectic granites are recognized. We relate the Ventersdorp rift province to extension in the Kaapvaal Craton associated with the collision, and see some analogy with such rifts as the Shansi and Baikal Systems associated with the current India-Asia continental collision.