Bela-Bela, previously known as Warmbaths, is a town situated along the R101 Regional Route between Pienaarsrivier and Modimolle in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
The town derives its name (Bela-Bela) from the geothermic hot springs around which the town was built. The hot springs produce 22,000 litres per hour at 52°C (127.4°F).
The name Bela-Bela means “the pot that boils” in Tswana/Pedi.
Bela-Bela is ideally located off the N1 National Route between Pretoria (100 km) and Polokwane (173 km). The town also lies approximately 167 km north of Johannesburg on the N1 highway.
Bela-Bela town is part of Bela-Bela Local Municipality within the Waterberg District Municipality of Limpopo Province.
The main hot springs holiday resort (previously run by state-owned company Aventura, formerly called Overvaal) in the town is still branded Warmbaths.
Previously named Warmbaths due to the the calming hot springs discovered here by the Tswana approximately 200 years ago, who had named them Bela-Bela. Bela-Bela meaning “water which boils on its own” is the towns biggest attraction.
The name Warmbad/Warmbaths was replaced in 2002 in favour of the original Tswana name. A holiday resort and Spa has grown up around the 53°C springs, where tourists will find restaurants and shopping facilities at the waterfront in this town.
The hot springs are located on the grounds of Forever Resorts Warmbaths. The climate here is mild during the winter months in South Africa with mostly sunny days, with pleasant summer months. This even temperature adds to its popularity with tourists.
The town is not only about hot spring water, it serves a wide radius of mixed farming area and has a good selection of accommodation options from holiday flats to well stocked game reserves.
History
When the Tswana tribes first moved into the region in the 1800s, they discovered hot springs in the area.
The Voortrekker Carl Van Heerden established the first Boer farm in what is now Bela-Bela and called it Het Bad. In 1873, President Burgers’ Transvaal government bought the land and established a resort called Hartingsburg after the prominent Dutch biologist Pieter Harting.
The British occupied the town during the Anglo-Boer War, and renamed the post office Warm Baths in 1903, and proclaimed the boundaries of Warmbaths to be the entire farm of Het Bad.
In 1920, Warmbaths was proclaimed a township (in the legal, not racial sense) and the township was designed by architect John Abraham Moffat in that year. In 1950, it became a magisterial district. In 1932, Warmbaths became a village town and was established as a town council in 1960.
Called Warmbaths in English, the Afrikaans name for the town was Warmbad.
On 14 June 2002, the South African government officially renamed the town Bela-Bela (meaning “boiling boiling”).
