Machadodorp, also known by its official name eNtokozweni, is a small town situated along the N4 National Route and R36 Provincial Route, near the edge of the escarpment in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa.
The Elands River runs through Machadodorp. There is a natural radioactive spring here that is reputed to have powerful healing qualities.
In early 2010, Machadodorp (along with Nelspruit and Waterval Boven) had its name officially changed. The town was renamed to eNtokozweni, meaning ‘Place of Happiness’. It is often still referred to as Machadodorp despite the name change.
History
The town grew around a station originally named Geluk, after the sheep farm it was built on, but in 1894 the name was changed to honour the Portuguese Major Joachim Machado, an engineer who had surveyed the land for the proposed Nelspruit-Delagoa Bay railway line through the Crocodile River gorge.
The settlement became a capital for a few months from 5 June 1900, but was only declared a municipal town in 1904. This quirk in history happened during the Second Boer War when the Transvaal Volksraad made the town their temporary seat, using railway carriages as their offices and mint after they had to evacuate Pretoria in the face of a British invasion.
A quick-thinking station master rescued a consignment of dying trout by dumping the fish in the Elands River, which formed the start of the town’s subsequent role in Mpumalanga’s trout tourism industry. With the demise of passenger trains in South Africa, the once-postcard-pretty station closed in 2001 and it is now a derelict ruin.
In the 21st century, Machadodorp’s residents either work for the industries feeding a chrome smelter, or the logging industries based on the pine plantations surrounding the town. A large contingent of contract workers employed at the Nkomati mine about an hour’s drive out of town also reside in Machadodorp, contributing a large part of the town’s economy.
The Komati Gorge, notable for its considerable biodiversity and bluff habitats, forms a backdrop to the town.
