31-706: The Vhembe District Municipality ( Venda : Masipala wa Tshiṱiriki tsha Vhembe ; Tsonga : Masipala wa Xifundza xa Vhembe ) is one of the 5 districts of the Limpopo province of South Africa . It is the northernmost district of the country and shares its northern border with the Beitbridge District in Zimbabwe and on the east with the Gaza Province in Mozambique . Vhembe consists of all
62-724: A result, there are no existing Venda communities or villages outside the district. Vhembe means Limpopo river in the Venda language . Before the renaming of Limpopo Province in 2002, the name Vhembe was submitted to the Limpopo legislature as one of the desired names for the new Province but the majority of the members of the Legislature voted against the name Vhembe in favour of the name Limpopo. The Dzata ruins in Thulamela Local Municipality once served as
93-412: A specified tone, HIGH , with unmarked syllables having a low tone. Phonetic falling tone occurs only in sequences of more than one vowel or on the penultimate syllable if the vowel is long. Tone patterns exist independently of the consonants and vowels of a word and so they are word tones . Venda tone also follows Meeussen's rule : when a word beginning with a high tone is preceded by that high tone,
124-515: A three-pronged attack and his royal village was torched. Mphefu's clan fled across the Limpopo River to Zimbabwe. The farms Rietvlei and Bergvliet were set aside in 1898 for a new town, and Trichardtsdorp was proclaimed the next year, named in honour of Louis Tregardt . Today the town commemorates his full name, Louis Trichardt . Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 vascular plant taxa, comprising 1,066 genera and 240 families are known to occur in
155-651: Is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe . It is mainly spoken by the Venda people (or Vhavenḓa) in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province , as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa . The Tshivenda language is related to the Kalanga language which is spoken in Southern Africa . During the apartheid era of South Africa, the Bantustan of Venda
186-644: Is a range of mountains in far northern South Africa . It is located in Vhembe District , Limpopo . It is named for the salt pan ( Venda : Thavha ya muno , or "place of salt") located at its western end. The mountain range reaches the opposite extremity in the Matikwa Nature Reserve, some 107 kilometres (66 mi) due east. The range as a whole had no Venda name, as it was instead known by its sub-ranges which include Dzanani , Songozwi and others. The Soutpansberg forms part of
217-895: Is the highest peak at 1,747 metres (5,732 ft). The Nzhelele River and its tributary the Mutamba , the Nwanedi River and its tributary the Luphephe River , as well as the Levubu River and its main tributaries, the Mutshindudi and Mutale Rivers , and the Letaba River rise in the slopes of the Soutpansberg Mountains. The Brak River , a tributary of the Sand River, flows diagonally at
248-686: The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape and the Soutpansberg. The main geographical feature of the district is the Soutpansberg mountains. Vhembe is surrounded by: The district contains the following local municipalities : The following statistics are from the census 2011 10% sample. Election results for Vhembe in the South African general election, 2004 . Venda language Venḓa or Tshivenḓa
279-417: The Soutpansberg flat lizard are all endemic and named after this range. The Soutpansberg is known for a high level of endemism of its invertebrate fauna. In today’s world, natural areas are under a lot of pressure from human activity. Exploitation of natural resources, human encroachment due to expanding developments, poaching and general pollution – these all affect the Soutpansberg in some way. At
310-482: The "plain" stops p, ṱ, t, and k are ejective . There are five vowel sounds and two high vowels in Tshivenḓa. A labiodental nasal /ɱ/ sound appears in prenasalised consonant sounds. Labiovelar sounds occur as alternatives to labiopalatal sounds and may also be pronounced /pkʰ pkʼ bɡ mŋ/ . Fortition of /ɸ β s ʃ x h l̪ l r w/ occurs after nasal prefixes, likely to [pʰ? b tsʰ tʃʰ kʰ? pʰ d̪ d d b] . Venda has
341-638: The 'Vhembe Biosphere Reserve', which was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2009. The latter reserve also includes the Blouberg Range , Kruger National Park and the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape . The mountain is intersected by two defiles , the Waterpoort in the west, containing the Sand River (Polokwane) and a railway line, and Wyllie's Poort, which allows N1 road traffic to pass from Louis Trichardt to Musina . Lajuma
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#1732765893079372-908: The Limpopo government due to the spread of cholera from across the Zimbabwean border to the district. The Vhembe region became the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve in 2009, which was officially declared a biosphere reserve in 2011. The reserve includes the Blouberg Range , the Kruger National Park , the Philip Herd Nature Reserve , the Nwanedi Nature Reserve, the Makgabeng Plateau, the Makuleke Wetlands,
403-634: The South of the country but also spread to other towns and cities. There is also a significant number of them in neighbouring South Africa where they are migrant workers . The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with five additional accented letters. There are four dental consonants with a circumflex accent below the letter ( ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ ) and an overdot for velar ṅ . Five vowel letters are used to write seven vowels. The letters C, J and Q are used only for foreign words and names. The extra letters have
434-594: The Soutpansberg, accounts for the species Brackenridgea zanguebarica , Millettia stuhlmannii , Oxytenanthera abyssinica , Trilepisium madagascariense , Brachystegia utilis - torrei (assimilated into a dominant B. spiciformis genome) and Syzygium masukuense . These species are not associated with the central Zimbabwean Miombo floristic element, but rather with the Eastern Highlands floristic element, and particularly its foothills. A total of at least 116 reptile species have been recorded in
465-570: The Soutpansberg. This biodiversity is remarkably high for such a small area and makes up 36% of the total number of reptile species that have been recorded in South Africa. This is roughly the same number of species (119) that occur in the Kruger National Park . The diversity is high compared to biodiversity hotspots of the world and the species diversity per unit area is higher than that of most of these hotspots. The Soutpansberg rock lizard , Soutpansberg worm lizard , Soutpansberg dwarf gecko and
496-521: The apartheid era, the bantustan of Venda (declared independent in 1979) was established in the eastern part of the Vhembe area, and was reintegrated into the country in 1994. The former bantustan capital, Thohoyandou (named after a chief that had led the expansion of the Venda empire in the 18th century) is the current seat of the Vhembe district. On 11 December 2008, Vhembe was declared a disaster zone by
527-568: The arrival of a relief commando, the Venda's mountain strongholds could not be taken. The voortrekkers abandoned the town on 15 July 1867 and established Pietersburg . An open-air museum was established to recreate the modest settlement. In October 1898 the Boere returned to regain control over the territory. General Piet Joubert 's commando occupied a strategic position over the Doorn River in preparation. In November, Mphefu 's kraal suffered
558-1111: The endemic flora can be regarded as succulents. Of the mountain's endemic flora, the Asclepiadaceae with 5 genera and 6 species displays a high generic diversity. Aloe presents the highest species diversity among native genera with 5 endemic species, and the monotypic Zoutpansbergia is the only endemic genus. The floral endemics include Encephalartos hirsutus , Duvalia procumbens , Euphorbia rowlandii , E. aeruginosa , E. zoutpansbergensis , Ceratotheca saxicola , Stapelia clavicorona , Tylophora coddii , Huernia nouhuysii , Aloe angelica , A. petrophila , A. soutpansbergensis , A. vossii , Combretum vendae , Blepharis spinipes , Mystacidium braybonae , Justicia montis-salinarum , Khadia borealis , Orbeanthus conjunctus , Streptocarpus parviflorus subsp. soutpansbergensis , Searsia magalismontana subsp. coddii , Vangueria soutpansbergensis and Pavetta tschikonderi . The tropical floristic element, which reaches its southern distribution within
589-547: The following Unicode names: The sintu writing system Isibheqe Sohlamvu/ Ditema tsa Dinoko , known technically in Venda as Luṱhofunḓeraru lwa Mibvumo , is also used for the Venda language. Venda distinguishes dental ṱ, ṱh, ḓ, ṋ, ḽ from alveolar t, th, d, n, l as well as (like in Ewe ) labiodental f, v from bilabial fh, vh (the last two are slightly rounded ). There are no clicks. As in other South African languages like Zulu , ph, ṱh, th, kh are aspirated and
620-506: The initial high tone is lost. (That is, there cannot be two adjacent marked high tones in a word, but high tone spreads allophonically to a following non-tonic ("low"-tone) syllable.) There are only a few tone patterns in Venda words (no tone, a single high tone on some syllable, two non-adjacent high tones), which behave as follows: Soutpansberg The Soutpansberg (formerly Zoutpansberg ), meaning "Salt Pan Mountain" in Afrikaans ,
651-483: The main settlement and capital of the Venda empire which had dominated the area during the 18th century. Boer settlement of the territory began in the early 19th century and gradually upsurged throughout the late 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, the Soutpansberg was taken by the Boers from the Venda rulers, making it one of the last areas in the future republic of South Africa to come under white rule. During
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#1732765893079682-761: The mountain. A species list from plots done at the Mutshidudi catchment area revealed 109 plant families, 397 genera and 619 species. 24 plant species are endemic to the mountain, and an additional 33 to the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve. 594 species of tree are native to the mountain or its direct vicinity. The Soutpansberg's immense floristic diversity can be attributed to several distinct floristic elements acting on it, namely Tropical, Moçambique coastal, Lowveld , Afromontane , Bushveld , Waterberg , Kalahari and Limpopo Valley. Approximately 10% of Soutpansberg plants can be considered succulent, and 32% of
713-459: The municipality's 800,000 inhabitants spoke TshiVenda as their mother language, while 400,000 spoke Xitsonga as their home language. However, the Tsonga people form the majority south of the Levubu River , while the Venda are the minority south of Levubu at 15%. The Sepedi speakers number 27,000. The district code is DC34. Vhembe is settled by the Venda people who constitute the majority of
744-503: The population of Vhembe. Later, from around 1820 onwards, the Tsonga people started to invade from the south east and are today a majority in the whole southern and eastern part of Vhembe, which are known today as Malamulele (in the east of Vhembe) and Hlanganani (in the south of Vhembe). At the same time, the Boer Voortrekkers arrived in Vhembe, at around 1836. Venda communities are only found in Vhembe district and as
775-490: The rest of the country—for a total number of Venda speakers in South Africa at 1.2 million people or just 2.2% of South Africa's population, making Venda speakers the second smallest minority language in South Africa, after the Ndebele language , which number 1.1 million speakers. The population statistics of the Venda people in Zimbabwe are not clear but may currently stand at a million. The people are concentrated in
806-476: The sea. Eleven years later, in 1848, a settlement named Zoutpansbergdorp was established at the site of an earlier Tregardt camp. It was founded by Jan Valentyn Botha, who led a faction of Andries Potgieter 's trek. Potgieter died at Zoutpansbergdorp in 1852, and his son shortly afterwards. In 1855 the town's de facto leader was Stephanus Schoeman who named the growing, though disorderly reed-hut settlement Schoemansdal , after himself. Augmented by renegades,
837-414: The territories that were part of the former Venda Bantustan ; however, two large densely populated districts of the former Tsonga homeland of Gazankulu , in particular, Hlanganani and Malamulele , were also incorporated into the municipality, hence the ethnic diversity of the district. The seat is Thohoyandou , the capital of the former Venda Bantustan. According to the 2011 census , the majority of
868-564: The town was a successful ivory trading centre by 1855, when its population numbered 200. Venda hunters supplied the Voortrekkers with ivory, and were in return supplied with fire arms. Relations between the Voortrekkers and Venda soured due to taxation, cattle rustling and lax control over the supply of fire arms. Total discord broke out in 1866, when the voortrekkers intervened in a Venda succession dispute, and one claimant, Makhado , attacked an outlying voortrekker settlement. Despite
899-458: The western end of the Soutpansberg, separating it from the Blouberg further west. The first white person to reach, and name, the mountain was Coenraad de Buys , a colonist who fled from Graaff Reinet after a failed rebellion in 1795. He settled near the mountain in 1820 and was the patriarch of a half-caste clan, the "Buysvolk" or Buys People, who are still to be found at Buysdorp . De Buys
930-406: Was followed by voortrekker Louis Tregardt who sojourned at the salt pan from May to August 1836. In November 1836 Tregardt moved camp to the vicinity of the later Schoemansdal and Louis Trichardt town, where he stayed until June 1837. From June to August 1837 Tregardt's party camped at the Doorn River, on the current Doorn River farm, whereafter they departed for good to find a trading route to
961-577: Was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa . According to the 2011 census , Venda speakers are concentrated in the following areas: Makhado Local Municipality , with 350,000 people; Thulamela Local Municipality , with 370,000 people; Musina Local Municipality , with 35,000 people; and Mutale Local Municipality , with 89,000 people. The total number of speakers in Vhembe district currently stands at 844,000. In Gauteng province , there are 275,000 Venda speakers. Fewer than 10,000 are spread across