Witbank

Witbank dam and Duvha power station

Trivia The smoke stacks at the Duvha power station are at 300m each, the second tallest freestanding structures in South Africa.

Witbank (Emalahleni) is a city of 109,000 people in Mpumalanga.

Understand

The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wagon transport drivers rested. The city is known for its coal-mining in the surrounding region.

Witbank was renamed to Emalahleni, meaning "the place of coal", in 2006 by the government of Mpumalanga.

Emalahleni is in a coal mining area with more than 22 collieries in the municipal radius. There are a number of power stations (such as the Duvha Power Station), as well as a steel mill (Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium Limited) nearby which all require coal. The region has the dirtiest air in the world due to the coal mining and plant power stations.

As Emalahleni is en route to travellers from the Gauteng province to the Kruger National Park, attempts have been made to capture some of the potential tourist spend. Apart from a few hotels, there are many guest houses. These vary from the utilitarian to the luxurious, and also cater for many of the business travellers visiting Emalahleni as well as those travelling to Mbombela, eSwatini and Mozambique.

Get in

• From Pretoria, follow the N4 toll road
• From Johannesburg, follow the N12, or follow the N1 towards Pretoria and then the N4 toll road to Witbank

The N4 from Pretoria and the N12 from Johannesburg converge at Emalahleni and then continue to Komatipoort, on the border of Mozambique.

Do

• Witbank Nature Reserve. 
• The Ridge Casino, ☏ +27 13 655-9399, fax: +27 13 692-6770, webmaster@tsogosun.com. Your average South African casino, with accommodation and restaurants on site. The casino complex is accessible within a few hundred metres from the N4 highway, providing two hotels, cinemas, ten-pin bowling, restaurants and the traditional gambling facilities. 

Buy

The Highveld Mall is immediately next to the casino and is a retail hub for locals and for many residents of towns in the vicinity.

Sleep

There are some guesthouses you could spend the nights in like Deletz Guesthouse.