Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga, province, northeastern South Africa. It is bounded by Limpopo province to the north, the countries of Mozambique and Eswatini to the east, the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Free State to the south, and Gauteng province to the west. Mpumalanga province (called Eastern Transvaal province in 1994–95) was part of former Transvaal province until 1994. Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) is the provincial capital.

The province contains several distinct physiographic regions: the Highveld, a plateau ranging in elevation from 4,000 to 6,000 feet (1,200 to 1,800 meters), in the west; the forested Drakensberg mountains rising to more than 7,500 feet (2,300 meters) in the east; and the Lowveld, a bush-clad plain that slopes gently upward toward the Lebombo Mountains on the Mozambique boundary to the northeast. Much of Mpumalanga is drained by eastward-flowing tributaries of the Limpopo River.

Temperatures in Mpumalanga vary with the elevation, ranging from a mean of 61 °F (16 °C) in the Highveld to a mean of 74 °F (23 °C) in the subtropical Lowveld. Precipitation generally increases from west to east, averaging from 20 to 30 inches (510 to 760 mm) annually in the Highveld and Drakensberg to more than 39 inches (1,000 mm) in parts of the Lowveld. Most of the natural vegetation in the province consists of various types of grassland or savanna parkland, with acacia trees.

Black Africans belonging mainly to the Nguni (including the Swazi and the Ndebele) make up more than nine-tenths of the province’s total population. They reside mainly in rural areas and speak Bantu languages.

Mpumalanga’s farms produce corn (maize), wheat, peanuts (groundnuts), cotton, sugar, potatoes and other vegetables, and a variety of fruits, including oranges and mangoes in the subtropical Lowveld and peaches at higher elevations. Beef and dairy cattle and sheep (producing Merino wool) are also important to the agricultural economy. The province possesses deposits of asbestos, copper, iron ore, platinum, chromium, and coal. Witbank and Nelspruit are the major urban centres. Mpumalanga encompasses the southern half of Kruger National Park, which is but one part of the evolving Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park that also includes parks in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Area 29,535 square miles (76,495 square km). Pop. (2011) 4,039,939; (2022) 5,143,324.