Delmas is a small maize farming town situated east of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. The town is located some 19 km north-east of Springs and 73 km south-east of

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

History

The town was laid out in 1907 on the farm ''Witklip'' (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...

for ''White Stone'') and has been administered by a town council since 1965. The name was given by the

Frenchman The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially th ...

Frank Campbell Dumat, former owner of Witklip, after his grandfather's farm in France. He originally laid out the town with 192 residential stands, 48 4 ha small holdings and 138 ha of commonage but by 1909 the governments added a further 5,500 ha to the town. This would be divided into 85 small holdings of around 64 ha.

Geography

Communities

Bothibelong is a township 3 km north of Delmas. The name is derived from Sotho and means 'protection'. A newer location is named Botleng, which means 'place of beauty' in Sotho.

Economy

Agriculture

The farms in the region produce

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

es and

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

s. AFGRI runs a chicken abattoir in the town.

Sports

Golf

The Delmas Golf Club is a nine-hole golf course that opened in 1960.

Motorsports

Red Star Raceway
is located approximately 15 km (9.2 mi) outside of Delmas, to the North East of the town centre. Opened in 2010, the 4km (2.4 mi) long circuit was initially designed to house motorcyles but later opened the facilities to cars. Originally developed by the owner, Jaques van Wyngaardt, in conjunction with Andy Farmer and Kevin Owen, the circuit can be run either clockwise or anticlockwise and features a shorter, "Club" circuit, bypassing several of the long circuit's corners. The facility offers a skid pan, recreational facilities as well as overnight accommodation, conference halls and ablution facilities. In 2022, construction started on a new filling station and convenience store to service both visitors to the track and travellers on the N12 freeway.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Delmas is an important railway junction on the Springs to

eMalahleni Witbank (), officially Emalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wag ...

rail-line, a line that connects to the

Port of Richards Bay The Port of Richards Bay is located in Richards Bay harbour on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, and contains the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) which is the largest coal export facility in Africa. Although originally built to handle coa ...

Roads

The town is connected by two main roads, the R555 and the R50. The R50 north connects the town to the N12 freeway junction which links

to Witbank while the road continues north to

. The R50 south connects the town to

Standerton Standerton is a large commercial and agricultural town lying on the banks of the Vaal River in Mpumalanga, South Africa, which specialises in cattle, dairy, maize and poultry farming. The town was established in 1876 and named after Boer leader Co ...

References

Populated places in the Victor Khanye Local Municipality Populated places established in 1907 {{Mpumalanga-geo-stub