Vaalbank, also known as Libangeni, is a small town situated in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, approximately 102 km north-east of Pretoria in Gauteng Province.
The town’s name is of Afrikaans origin and means ‘grey banks’, most probably referring to the banks of the then Renosterkop Dam.
The Ndebele population has a name for the town: Libangeni, although this name is never used in speech.
The town of Vaalbank is of great importance in the northwestern end of Mpumalanga Province where the majority of the surrounding population is rural and does not have infrastructure. The town overlooks the Mkhombo Dam (formerly called the Renosterkop Dam) which is of agricultural importance in the region.
Vaalbank is located in Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality within the Nkangala District Municipality of Mpumalanga Province.
The “Main Street” serves as a divide between the early Vaalbank that was set by the KwaNdebele government and the current multi-ethnic Vaalbank. The early Vaalbank was established to be an urban residential site for the Ndebele population. But with the demise of Apartheid, the town became multi-ethnic and services rendered were no longer of high quality. With this decline of quality services, the newer part of town became more of a shanty town with the exceptions of a few sections.
The town has significant populations of Ndebele, Pedi, Tswana, Tsonga and Zulu people, whereas a minority of Venda, Indian and Chinese (primarily merchants) people are also found.
