Komatipoort is a town situated at the confluence of the

Crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...

and

Komati River The Komati River, also known as the Inkomati River or Incomati River (in Mozambique, from Portuguese Rio Incomati), is a river in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. Originating in north-western Eswatini, it is joined by the Crocodile Riv ...

s in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

province,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The town is 8 km from the Crocodile Bridge Gate into the

Kruger National Park Kruger National Park () is a national park in South Africa covering an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in the country's northeast. It extends from north to south and from east to west. The administrative headquarters are i ...

, just 3 km from the

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

border and 65 km from the

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

border. It is a small, quiet town within the Lowveld with some attractive tree-lined streets. It is one of the hottest towns in South Africa where temperatures can reach almost 48 °C ( on 12 December 1944) in the height of summer, but also with a perfect winter climate around .

History

'Komati' also takes its name from

Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...

, one of RSA's first languages, referring to the once wealthy cattle owners on this land, with 'koma' meaning cows and 'ti' meaning my. 'Komati' takes its name from the

whose original native Swazi name is Nkomazi, translated as "river of cows". It is where the Crocodile and Komati Rivers meet to flow through the 'Poort' (mountain pass) through the

Lebombo Mountains The Lebombo Mountains, also called Lubombo Mountains, Rivombo Mountains (), are an , narrow range of mountains in Southern Africa. They stretch from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa ...

into Mozambique. In the 1890s Komatipoort was a wild and uproarious construction camp for the railway being built from Lourenco Marques (modern

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

). Conditions were not the best with the area gripped by a malaria epidemic; it was in the zone called 'fever country'. Komatipoort was the last stop in the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

(ZAR) Pretoria - Delagoa Bay Line constructed by the Netherlands-South African Railway Company (NZASM) with the first train crossing the border at Komatipoort from the ZAR to

Portuguese East Africa Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...

on 1 July 1891 after the completion of the rail bridge over the Komati River. Between 1900 and 1902 during the Anglo/Boer War, the town was used as a base by Major F. Von Steinaecker and his group known as 'Steinaecker's Horse'. They were a bunch of mercenaries and bushwhackers and were recruited by the British in order to fight Boer guerrillas in the

bushveld The Bushveld (from Afrikaans: ''bosveld'', Afrikaans: ''bos'' 'bush' and ) is a Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. The ecoregion straddles the Tropic of Capricorn ...

. Near Komatipoort is the site where the former Mozambique's President

Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambique, Mozambican politician and revolutionary. A Socialism, socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the coun ...

died in a plane crash at Mbuzini village in the Lebombo mountain, the natural barrier between South Africa and Mozambique. At the site of the accident stands the Samora Machel Monument. The Nkomati Accord was signed in Komatipoort in 1984.

Infrastructure

This town has a railway station for the loading and unloading of passengers and cargo on the Pretoria–Maputo railway.Mozambique Logistics Infrastructure: Mozambique Railway Assessment
Atlassian Confluence. 10 de dezembro de 2018. The town is the site of a dry port.

References

External links

Unofficial Town Portal
Populated places in the Nkomazi Local Municipality Mozambique–South Africa border crossings Komati River 1874 establishments in Africa {{Mpumalanga-geo-stub

History

Infrastructure

See also

References

External links