This luxury lodge is located west of the Kruger National Park to offer guests an ethnic-style retreat within the bushveld in the North-eastern Lowveld (Property for sale only): for sale

Hoedspruit 

Hoedspruit (Afrikaans for Hat Creek) is a town situated at the foot of the Klein Drakensberg (Afrikaans for "Small Dragon Mountains" range), in the Limpopo province of South Africa, on the railway line from Tzaneen to Kaapmuiden.

Economy

The town, while still small, has grown in recent years.^[when?] Due to its proximity to private game reserves and the Kruger National Park, ecotourism is a major contributor to the local economy.

Air Force Base Hoedspruit and Eastgate Airport

Air Force Base Hoedspruit is home to 19 Squadron, a helicopter unit of the South African Air Force. The civil Eastgate Airport, which shares the Air Force base's airfield is served by several charter operators.

A feasibility study was conducted on whether the airport could be upgraded to international status. The airport accommodated 57 000 passengers between 2008 and 2009 and has the capacity to handle between 10 000 and 11 000 additional passengers.

Education

Hoedspruit has various primary and secondary schools:

Laerskool Drakensig

Hoedspruit Christian School

Southern Cross Schools

Laerskool Mariepskop

Hoedspruit Independent College

Lowveld Academy

Hoedspruit Secondary School

Limpopo

Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is situated in Lebowakgomo.

Geography

Limpopo Province shares international borders with districts and provinces of three countries: Botswana's Central and Kgatleng districts to the west and northwest respectively, Zimbabwe's Matabeleland South and Masvingo provinces to the north and northeast respectively, and Mozambique's Gaza Province to the east. Limpopo is the link between South Africa and countries further afield in sub-Saharan Africa. On its southern edge, from east to west, it shares borders with the South African provinces of Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and North West. Its border with Gauteng includes that province's Johannesburg-Pretoria axis, the most industrialised metropolis on the continent. The province is at the centre of regional, national, and international developing markets.

Limpopo contains much of the Waterberg Biosphere, a massif of approximately 15,000 km² (5,800 sq mi) which is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

The province is made up of 3 former homelands of Lebowa, Gazankulu and Venda. Limpopo is made up of 3 main ethnic groups namely; Pedi people, Tsonga and Venda people.

Traditional leaders and chiefs still form a strong backbone of the province's political landscape. Established in terms of the Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders Act, Act 5 of 2005, the Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders' main function is to advise government and the legislature on matters related to custom, tradition and culture including developmental initiatives that have an impact on rural communities. On 18 August 2017 Kgosi Malesela Dikgale was re-elected as the Chairperson of the Limpopo House of Traditional Leader.

Limpopo has a total population of 6.015 Million with 1.641million Households. The province has a high Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.710, which is the third highest in South Africa.

Agriculture

The bushveld is beef cattle country, where extensive ranching operations are often supplemented by controlled hunting. About 80% of South Africa's game hunting industry is found in Limpopo.

Sunflowers, cotton, maize and peanuts are cultivated in the Bela-Bela and Modimolle areas. Modimolle is also known for its table grapes. There is an embryotic wine industry growing in Limpopo. Tropical fruit, such as bananas, litchis, pineapples, mangoes and pawpaws, as well as a variety of nuts, are grown in the Tzaneen and Louis Trichardt areas. Tzaneen is also at the centre of extensive citrus, tea and coffee plantations, and a major forestry industry. Most of the farmers and house holds suffer from water supply, therefore they drill their boreholes in their premises.

Housing

Majority of Limpopo residents live in rural areas, this has given rise to a new phenomenon of rural development, where the residents have invested in building lavish homes on their tribal land. Limpopo rural houses have been profiled by TV channels, lifestyle vloggers, social media influencers, and Africa's biggest facts brand Africa Facts Zone. According to  96.2% of Limpopo lives in formal housing, this figure is above the national average of 84.0%. This makes Limpopo the province with the highest percentage of people living in formal housing in South Africa.

Mining

Limpopo's rich mineral deposits include the platinum group metals, iron ore, chromium, high- and middle-grade coking coal, diamonds, antimony, phosphate, and copper, as well as mineral reserves like gold, emeralds, scheelite, magnetite, vermiculite, silicon, and mica. Commodities such as black granite, corundum, and feldspar are also found. Mining contributes to over a fifth of the provincial economy.

Limpopo has the largest platinum deposit in South Africa.The Waterberg Coalfield, the eastern extension of Botswana's Mmamabula coalfields, is estimated to contain 40% of South Africa's coal reserves.

Tourism

The Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism has targeted the province as a preferred eco-tourism destination. Its Environment and Tourism Programme encompasses tourism, protected areas and community environment development to achieve sustainable economic growth.

While Limpopo is one of South Africa's poorest provinces, it is rich in wildlife, which gives it an advantage in attracting tourists. Both the private and public sectors are investing in tourism development.

Near Modjadjiskloof, at Sunland Baobab farms, there is a large Baobab tree which has been fashioned into a rather spacious pub.

Transportation and communications

The province has excellent road, rail, and air links. The N1 route from Johannesburg, which extends the length of the province, is the busiest overland route in Africa in terms of cross-border trade in raw materials and beneficiated goods. The port of Durban, South Africa's busiest, is served directly.

Demographics

The population of Limpopo consists of several ethnic groups distinguished by culture, language and race. 97.3% of the population is Black, 2.4% is White, 0.2% is Coloured, and 0.1% is Indian/Asian. The province has the smallest percentage and second smallest total number of white South Africans in the country; although there a number of localities with a White majority, notably Hoedspruit and Modimolle. It also has the highest Black percentage out of all the provinces.

The Northern Sotho people make up the largest percentage of the population, making 52% of the province. The Tsonga people comprise about 24.0% of the province; the Tsonga also comprise about 11.5% of Mpumalanga province since the southern part of their homeland, Gazankulu, was cut off from Limpopo and allocated to Mpumalanga. The Venda make up about 16.7%. Afrikaners make up the majority of Limpopo's white population, about 95,000 people; English-speaking whites number just over 20,000. Vhembe district has the smallest share of white people in Limpopo, about 5,000 total, while the Waterberg district has the largest share of whites, with more than 60,000 whites residing there. Coloureds and Asians/Indians make up a very small percentage of the province's total population.