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Malelane Accommodation: Nearby towns with accommodation:
Kruger Park Accommodation | Nelspruit Accommodation | Marloth Park Accommodation
White River Accommodation | Komatipoort Accommodation | Hazyview Accommodation
Malelane is a farming town in Mpumalanga, South Africa situated on the N4 national highway. The farms in the region produce sugarcane, subtropical fruit and winter vegetables.
The town was proclaimed in 1949 after which it was named. The origin of the name is disputed but was corrupted from the swazi. Either the expression "eMlalani" which means place of the palms, or the expression "lala" which means to sleep are accepted origins of the name. The town started as the first rest-stop between Lourenço Marques and Pretoria. As of July 2007 the town was officially renamed from "Malelane" to "Malalane" as part of the governments politically correct renaming scheme by the South African Geographical Names Council. This peculiar move by the government has been costly to numerous businesses and was met with some confusion as many thought that the name was already a native word.
The Malelane area has a diverse history which includes both farming and tourism based operations. The area was originally a bush area and was known as The Kruger Shooting Concession. Leopard, lion and buffalo were often shot as a sport. In 1926 the area was proclaimed as The Kruger National Park and hunting stopped. The effect of this was minimal as visitors to the area now visited to see the game instead of hunting it. With the formation of the national park a barbed wire fence was erected. This had little effect on the agricultural sector of the region except that animals were now more controlled and were limited in roaming onto farmers crops, although larger game such as buffalo and elephant still strayed onto farms.
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