Grootvlei, officially Thaba-Kgwali,
is a town in
Dipaleseng Local Municipality
Dipaleseng Municipality (; ) is a Local municipality (South Africa), local municipality within the Gert Sibande District Municipality, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Balfour, Mpumalanga, Balfour is the seat of the municipality.
Main ...
in the
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 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 ...
. An old mining town, Grootvlei is located near the
N3 road and on the
R51 road, 5 km from
Grootvlei Power Station
Grootvlei Power Station is a coal-fired power station located in Grootvlei, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
History
The first of Grootvlei's six units was commissioned in 1969. In 1989 three units were mothballed and in 1990 the other three followed. D ...
.
Description
The community had a booming economy in the 1970s and 1980s, when demand for coal from the power station created many jobs in the mining sector, but when the power plant was mothballed in the late 1980s due to overproduction of electricity, the local economy collapsed and Grootvlei became a virtual ghost town. The power plant was recommissioned in 2008, leading to a new period of growth.
References
Populated places in the Dipaleseng Local Municipality
{{Mpumalanga-geo-stub