Ermelo is the educational, industrial and commercial centre of the 7,750 km² Gert Sibande District Municipality

Gert Sibande District Municipality

Gert Sibande is one of the 3 districts of Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The seat of Gert Sibande is Secunda. The majority of its 900 007 people speak IsiZulu . The district code is DC30...

 in Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga

Mpumalanga , is a province of South Africa. The name means east or literally "the place where the sun rises" in Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5% of South Africa's land area...

 province, Republic of South Africa. Mixed farming (maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

, potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

es, bean

Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....

s, wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

, pig

Pig

A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...

s, sunflower

Sunflower

Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...

 seeds, lucerne

Alfalfa

Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop in the US, Canada, Argentina, France, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, and many other countries. It is known as lucerne in the UK, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and known as...

 and sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

) and anthracite, coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 and torbanite

Torbanite

Torbanite, also known as boghead coal, is a variety of fine-grained black oil shale. It usually occurs as lenticular masses, often associated with deposits of Permian coals. Torbanite is classified as lacustrine type oil shale....

 mining take place here. Ermelo is the crossroads of three national highways

National Roads in South Africa

In South Africa, national routes constitute a numbered network of roads starting with an "N" prefix . They usually connect major centres. Although the terms National Road and National Route are often used interchangably in everyday conversation, the two are not synonymous, and some Regional Routes ...

, N2

N2 (South Africa)

The N2 is a National Route in South Africa; it is the main highway along the Indian Ocean coast of the country. The N2 starts in Cape Town in the Western Cape and runs through the cities of Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal to end at Ermelo in...

, N11

N11 (South Africa)

The N11 is a National Route in South Africa, connecting the Botswana border at Grobler's Bridge with the N3 near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal.-Route:...

 and the N17

N17 (South Africa)

The N17 is a South African National Route, designed in the 1980s as an international link between Johannesburg and Swaziland at Oshoek/Ngwenya. It passes through Springs, Bethal and Ermelo....

, only Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

 & Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

 are crossed by more.

History

Some of the earliest inhabitants of the area were the mysterious Leghoya people. Not much is known about them, but ruins of their settlements dating back to c.1400 can found in the area. Modern Ermelo was founded by Dutch Reformed Church

Dutch Reformed Church

The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...

 Reverend Frans Lion Cachet (1835-1899). Cachet was an outspoken preacher, who had a strong interest in evangelism to Jews, his own family having had a Jewish heritage. Cachet had met and been influenced by Hermanus Willem Witteveen from Ermelo

Ermelo

Ermelo is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland in the Veluwe area with a population of over 26.000.-Etymology:...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 as a young man, and named the settlement in honour of Witteveen.

A congregation was started at Ermelo by Cachet in 1870, and was recognised by the 5th annual general meeting of the church in April of 1872.

The town was reduced to a single standing home by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 during the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

.

Demographics

Ermelo has a more than 40000 inhabitants. http://bevoelkerungsstatistik.de/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=de&des=gamelan&geo=-245&srt=pnan&col=abcdefghimoq&msz=1500&pt=c&va=x

Notable people from Ermelo

• Nkosinathi Nhleko, soccer player
• Bashini Mahlangu, soccer player
• Lucky Dube
  Lucky Dube
  Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae musician. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25-year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist...
  
  , musician
• Jennifer Ferguson, musician
• Dan Nkosi, musician
• William Papas, journalist
• Mduduzi Manana, parliamentarian
• Tshepo Ngwane, actor
• Sibongile Manana, parliamentarian
• Siphamandla Nkambule, musician
• Eksteen Jacobsz
  The Sick-Leaves
  The Sick-Leaves is an alternative rock artist originating from South Africa. The Sick-Leaves is the solo project of Eksteen Jacobsz who is the songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and bassist.-Early years:...
  
  , musician
• Larry Robertson, founder of Capital college and Promat College
• Johann Slee, award winning architect and painter
• Henno Mentz
  Henno Mentz
  Hendrik Mentz born 25 September 1979 in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, South Africa is a rugby union player for the Lions in the Super 14 competition. He plays on the wing. Since his transition from the Sharks to the Lions in 2009, Mentz has been a consistently good player in an overall poor Lions team...
  
  , rugby player
• MJ Mentz, rugby player (brother of Henno)
• Michiel Daniel Overbeek
  Michiel Daniel Overbeek
  Michiel Daniel Overbeek , also known as Danie Overbeek, was a South African amateur astronomer and one of the most prolific variable star observers.-Life:...
  
  , astronomer
• Jean-Claude Pretorius, professional cyclist and bike manufacturer

Night clubs

• Dube Tonight
• Back of the moon
• Kariba
• Old Man (187 Magwaza St 2351)
• Moyeni