Witbank

eMalahleni
Aerial view over the suburbs
eMalahleni Show map of Mpumalanga eMalahleni Show map of South Africa eMalahleni Show map of Africa  eMalahleni shown within Mpumalanga
Coordinates: 25°52′37″S 29°12′04″E / 25.877°S 29.201°E / -25.877; 29.201Coordinates: 25°52′37″S 29°12′04″E / 25.877°S 29.201°E / -25.877; 29.201
Country	South Africa
Province	Mpumalanga
District	Nkangala
Municipality	Emalahleni
Established	1890
Area
• Total	164.27 km2 (63.43 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	108,673
• Density	660/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	48.1%
• Coloured	2.0%
• Indian/Asian	2.5%
• White	46.8%
• Other	0.6%
First languages (2011)
• Afrikaans	42.4%
• Zulu	17.6%
• English	13.7%
• Northern Sotho	7.6%
• Other	18.7%
Postal code (street)	1035
Area code	013

eMalahleni (meaning "place of coal"), formely called Witbank, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the eMalahleni Local Municipality. 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 the coal-mining in the surrounding region.

Witbank was established in 1890 and early attempts to exploit the coal deposits failed until the railway from Pretoria reached the area in 1894. It was proclaimed a town in 1903 and became a municipality in 1914. Despite attempts by governing bodies to establish the use of the name, eMalahleni, for the city as well as for the district, locals still tend to call the city by its original name. Similarly to the anglicised pronunciation of Johannesburg, English-speaking residents pronounce the name as “wit•bank” and not as “vit•bunk” as in the original Afrikaans pronunciation, nor as “vit•bank” as English-speaking visitors are prone to say.

There are many stories about the city and its origination but the top story would be the arrival of Winston Churchill at the nearby Transvaal and Delagoa Bay Colliery during his escape from Boer imprisonment in Pretoria, on his way to Delagoa Bay (later Lourenço Marques, and then Maputo, in Mozambique). Some local residents, loyal to the Crown, assisted him in hiding and making the final leg of his escape, thus gaining Witbank the consequent credit once the details of these events could be made known. The town has grown since then from a farming community into a business destination where companies such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Evraz, Eskom, Exxaro, Joy, Komatsu, the Renova Group, SAB Miller, SAMANCOR, Shanduka Beverages, TMISSP and Xstrata amongst many others have found substantial returns on their investments.