Ermelo () is the educational, industrial and commercial town of the 7,750 km²

Gert Sibande District Municipality Gert Sibande (until 2004 known as the Eastvaal District Municipality) is one of the 3 districts of Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The seat of Gert Sibande is Ermelo. The majority of its 900 007 people speak IsiZulu (2001 Census). The di ...

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,

Republic of 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 ...

. It is both a mixed

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

region. It is located 210 km east of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

History

Some of the earliest inhabitants of the area were the Leghoya people. Not much is known about them, but ruins of their settlements dating back to c.1400 can be found in the area. During the mid-1800s, the area prior to the formation as a village, was an ''outspan'' area for resting teams of draw animals transporting goods across the region mainly due to the water of the small lakes dotting the area. Modern Ermelo was founded by

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

Reverend The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...

Frans Lion Cachet (1835–1899). He would minister to the many farms in the area. A congregation was started by Cachet in 1870, and was recognised by the 5th annual general meeting of the church in April 1872. The town was formed on the farm ''Nooitgedacht'' purchased from P.J. Fourie in 1879 and proclaimed on 12 February 1880. It was managed by the church until 1895 when the government of 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 ...

took over its management. Cachet named it after a town in the Netherlands. Cachet was an outspoken preacher, who had a strong interest in evangelism to Jews, his own family having Jewish heritage. Cachet had met and been influenced by Hermanus Willem Witteveen from Ermelo in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

as a young man, and named the settlement in honour of Witteveen. In 1901, the town was reduced to a single standing home by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

. The town would be rebuilt in 1903.

Economy

Agriculture

Mixed farming such as

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

sunflower seed A sunflower seed is a seed from a sunflower (''Helianthus annuus''). There are three types of commonly used sunflower seeds: linoleic (most common), high oleic, and sunflower oil seeds. Each variety has its own unique levels of monounsatura ...

s, nuts, sub-tropical fruits,

lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

and

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

take place around the district. The town is the home of the Nooitgedacht Agriculture Development and Research Centre that researches crop production and animal husbandry.

Mining

Mining is important to the district with

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

torbanite Torbanite, also known historically as boghead coal or kerosene shale, is a variety of fine-grained black oil shale. It usually occurs as Lens (geology), lenticular masses, often associated with deposits of Permian coals. Torbanite is classified ...

mined.

Law and government

Government

Ermelo falls under the

Msukaligwa Local Municipality Msukaligwa Municipality (; ) is a local municipality within the Gert Sibande District Municipality, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Ermelo is the seat of the municipality. Main places The 2001 census divided the municipality into th ...

which is situated in the Gert Sibande District, of Mpumalanga. Ermelo is the seat of the municipality.

Coats of arms

Municipality (1) — A municipal board was established for Ermelo in 1903. By 1931, it had assumed
coat of arms
The arms were registered with the Transvaal Provincial Administration in January 1957Transvaal ''Official Gazette'' 2615 (23 January 1957). and recorded at the

Bureau of Heraldry The Bureau of Heraldry is the South African heraldic authority, established in Pretoria on 1 June 1963. It is headed by a State Herald (known unofficially as the National Herald since 2004) and its functions are to register arms, badges, flags ...

as part of a municipal flag in 1967.National Archives of South Africa : Data of the Bureau of Heraldry
/ref> The arms were : ''Per pale, dexter Or, a mining headgear Sable; sinister Vert, a sheep-shear and spade in saltire, handles upwards, Argent; on a chief Gules a phoenix on a nest enflamed, Or''. In layman's terms, the shield was divided vertically, displaying a black mine headgear on a golden background and a crossed sheep-shear and spade on a green background, and across the top was a golden phoenix on a red horizontal stripe. (Note : these are not the colours shown on the cigarette card issued in 1931. Either the cigarette card is wrong, or the municipality changed the colours some time between 1931 and 1957.) The motto was ''Stabiliter progrediens''. Municipality (2) — The Ermelo transitional local council which administered the town during the local government reorganisation in the late 1990s, registered its own arms at the Bureau of Heraldry in May 1998. The arms were: ''Per fess Or and Vert, charged over the partition line with five lozenges conjoined, per fess Sable and Argent; in chief a phoenix Sable issuant from flames Gules and in base sheep shears and a spade in saltire, blades to base, Argent''. In layman's terms, this shield was divided horizontally into gold and green, with a black phoenix at the top and a crossed silver sheep-shear and spade at the bottom, and across the centre a row of five diamond-shapes divided horizontally into black over silver. The crest was a green mural crown with the brickwork outlined in gold. The motto was ''Stabiliter progrediens''. These arms have been taken over by the Msukaligwa municipality, of which Ermelo now forms part.

Infrastructure

Transportation

It is also a railway junction between Mpumalanga and

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

. The rail junction connects to

Machadodorp Machadodorp, also known by its official name eNtokozweni, is a small town situated on the N4 national highway, near the edge of the escarpment in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The Elands River runs through the town. There is a natural ...

which is on the

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

and

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 ...

railway line. The town also lies on the railway line that connects the coalfields with 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 c ...

on the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. Coal trains shipping to the coast from the mines change electric locomotives here, as power converts from

Direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional electric current, flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor (material), conductor such as a wire, but can also flow throug ...

Alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...

- a legacy of the British and Afrikaner histories of the area.Shongololo puts SA’s coal on a faster track
''BDLive''

Roads

Ermelo is the crossroads of three

national highways National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in Eng ...

, namely the N2, N11 and N17. The N2 connects south-east to

Piet Retief Pieter Mauritz Retief (12 November 1780 – 6 February 1838) was a '' Voortrekker'' leader. Settling in 1814 in the frontier region of the Cape Colony, he later assumed command of punitive expeditions during the sixth Xhosa War. He became a s ...

(105 km away) and eventually

Richards Bay Richards Bay () is a city in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of the country's largest harbours. Richards Bay also has the deepest natural harbour on the Africa ...

(417 km away). The N11 connects south to the towns to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

(152 km away) and Ladysmith (250 km away) and the N3 to

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

. The N11 also connects north to

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

(108 km away). The N17 connects west to

and east to

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 ...

Notable people from Ermelo

Lucky Dube Lucky Philip Dube (pronounced ''duu-beh'';
luckydubemusic.com, Retrieved 19 October 2007 3 August 1964 – 18 October 2 ...

, musician *

Jennifer Ferguson Jennifer Ferguson is a South African singer-songwriter and political activist, and former member of Parliament for the African National Congress in South Africa. She recorded her first two albums of music through Shifty Records and was part of a ...

, singer-songwriter; activist; M.P. *

Lizelle Lee Lizelle Lee (born 2 April 1992) is a South African cricketer who played for the South Africa women's national cricket team from 2013 to 2022. She has played for Western Storm and Surrey Stars in the Women's Cricket Super League, as well as Melb ...

South Africa national women's cricket team The South Africa women's national cricket team, nicknamed the ''Proteas'', represents South Africa in international women's cricket. One of eight teams competing in the ICC Women's Championship (the highest level of the sport), the team is or ...

player *

Mpho Madi Mpho Madi (born 30 May 1988) is a South African female wrestler. She represented South Africa in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and also in the 2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealt ...

, wrestler,

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

bronze medalist *

Mduduzi Manana Mduduzi Comfort Manana (born 12 February 1984) is a South African politician from Mpumalanga. He was the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training from 2012 to 2017 and represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Asse ...

, former deputy minister of the

Department of Higher Education and Training The Department of Higher Education and Training is one of the departments of the South African government. It oversees universities and other post-secondary education in South Africa. It was created in 2009 after the election of President Jacob ...

, and member of the

Parliament of South Africa The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is South Africa's legislature. It is located in Cape Town; the country's legislative capital city, capital. Under the present Constitution of South Africa, the bicameralism, bicameral Parliamen ...

* Henno Mentz,

South Africa national rugby union team The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

player * MJ Mentz, former

South Africa national rugby sevens team The South African national rugby sevens team, commonly known as the Springbok Sevens, competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. Overall, the team has won the Wo ...

& Pumas (rugby team) *

Tshepo Ngwane Tshepo Ngwane (21 July 1976 – 27 October 2015) was a South African actor most famous for his role as Thiza on the South African television drama series ''Yizo Yizo''. References

1976 births 2015 deaths South African male television ...

, actor * Toni Nhleko, Premiership player &

South Africa national football team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for soccer in South Africa. Nicknamed Bafana Bafana (The Boys in Zulu), the ...

player *

Michiel Daniel Overbeek Michiel Daniel Overbeek (15 September 1920 in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, South Africa – 19 July 2001 in Johannesburg), also known as Danie Overbeek, was a South African amateur astronomer and one of the most prolific variable star observers. Life He ...

, astronomer * Gert Sibande, political activist * Johan Velde van der Merwe,

South African Police Service The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,154 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the Provinces of South Africa, provincial borders, and a Provincial Commis ...

Commissioner (1990–95)

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Msukaligwa Local Municipality Populated places established in 1880