Malelane, also known as Malalane, is a farming town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa situated along the N4 National Route.
The farms in the region produce sugarcane, subtropical fruit and winter vegetables.
The town was proclaimed in 1949 after which it was named. The origin of the name is disputed but was corrupted from the Swazi. Either the expression “eMlalani” which means place of the palms, or the expression “lala” which means to sleep is accepted origins of the name.
The town started as the first rest-stop between Lourenço Marques and Pretoria. As of July 2007 the town was officially renamed from “Malelane” to “Malalane” as part of the government’s renaming scheme by the South African Geographical Names Council.
Malalane is part of the Nkomazi Local Municipality under the Ehlanzeni District Municipality in Mpumalanga Province.
History
In the area surrounding Malalane is an ancient hematite mine, at Dumaneni, one of the oldest mines in the world – dating back to 46 000 and 28 500 years ago during the Middle Stone Age. One of Malalane’s earliest colonists was Captain GJ (Mkonto) Elphick. After having fought in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), Elphick bought the old Malalane farm and successfully planted tomatoes, cotton, mangos, oranges and pawpaws. Elphick also pioneered the commercial aspect of Malalane by opening the first store in the vicinity.
Despite Elphick’s operations, the Onderberg area was predominantly a bush area and formed part of The Kruger Shooting Concession. Leopard, lion and buffalo were often shot as a sport. In 1926 the area was proclaimed as The Kruger National Park and hunting was stopped. The effect of this was minimal as visitors to the area now visited to see the game instead of hunting it. With the formation of the national park a barbed wire fence was erected. This had little effect on the agricultural sector of the region except that animals were now more controlled and were limited in roaming onto farmers crops, although larger game such as buffalo and elephant still strayed onto farms.
In 1942 the government of the Transvaal commissioned a dirt road through the area for military use, that was later tarred. The road increased traffic through the area, however this had little effect on the local economy as the traffic was primarily passing through to Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). The odd traveller may have stopped at a local shop, with little impact on trade in general.
In 1963 the fence bordering the Kruger National Park was upgraded to meet international standards and was proclaimed proficient against the threat of foot and mouth disease in the park. The migration of larger game was severely restricted. Elephant, buffalo, lion and hippo now had extremely limited access to crops and farmers could invest more into their produce as the threat of them being destroyed by wild animals was minimal. Cattle were a popular choice as the threat of them being eaten by predators was now much less than before.
1965 saw the upgrade of the foot and mouth fence. It was electrified and known as the “Snyman fence”. It also saw the construction of the Transvaal Suiker Beperk (TSB) sugar mill near the Malalane entrance of the Kruger National Park. Naturally this had the effect of mass planting of sugar cane in the area. The area soon began to flourish and was characterised by good sugar production and tourism. The mill still runs to this day and serves local farmers. The military road was upgraded again to meet the needs of the area but also to service Eskom operations in the area. This meant easier access for tourists to enter the region and to travel to Mozambique, also, goods could now be transported more easily.
