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Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga means “the place where the sun rises” and constitutes 6.5% of South Africa’s land area.  Some of the oldest rocks on earth are to be found in this province and these ancient greenstones and metamorphosed granites form he Crocodile River Mountains in the south east of the province.  The lowveld is under laid by African Cratonic Basement rocks of ages in excess of 2 billion years.  The Highveld is mostly Karoo Sequence sedimentary rocks of a younger Carboniferous to Permian age.

Middleburg

Middelburg was established as Nasareth (root from dry land) in 1864 by the Voortrekkers on the banks of the Klein Olifants River.  The name was changed in 1872 to Middelburg to mark its location between the Transvaal capital Pretoria and the gold mining town of Lydenburg.  A Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1890 and became a focal point in the area.  Languages spoken in this area are Afrikaans, Zulu, English and Northern Sotho.

Columbus Stainless, a large stainless steel plant, constructed in 1965, and Thos Begbie, a company established more than 120 years ago by Scotsman Thomas Begbie, are both situated here.  For many years, the industrial activities of the steel plant and its peripheral activities, such as coal and transport, provided much of the employment and largely drove the economy of the town, although other sectors such as agriculture have gradually grown to be important.

The town is situated conveniently close to one of the main routes to the Kruger National Park and has a small but growth tourism industry.  Some landmarks and notable features in or around the town include the Middelburg Dam, the Botshabelo mission station museum and associated tourist village, several hiking trails and the Dutch Reformed church in the town centre. Kanonkop – referring to the days of the Anglo Boer War, the site of the British Concentration Camp graveyard.