Jobs in Tzaneen

Iinfo.co.za reveals that Tzaneen owes much to the discovery of minerals on the route between Pietersburg (now Polokwane) and Phalaborwa, as stories of the coach journeys that took place between the two are more than legendary.

Intrepid drivers, generally well-fortified with alcoholic beverages, braved swollen rivers, fearful mountain passes, muddy tracks, and attacks from lions, buffalo and highwaymen. In fact, secretary to Lord Milner, John Buchan, wrote in his 1902 journal that the coach journey “precipitously descends the mountainside onto the fever flats that line the Groot Letaba and Letsitele Rivers”, and “imperils a traveller’s life” such that he or she is lucky to “escape full-on destruction”.

A stopover for the night, en route, was therefore well deserved – even if the hotels of the time comprised various rondavels, guest bathrooms that consisted of hollowed out tree trunks filled with (at least!) clean water, a kitchen open to the elements, and meals that came out of a three-legged black pot.

Unfortunately, the site of most of the gold deposits – Leydsdorp – soon lost its attraction due to a lack of drinking water, becoming a ghost town in the process. And the journey to the Low Country had certainly become less treacherous  by 1916, once a railway line was connecting Tzaneen to Pietersburg.

However, you can still recreate the romance of that bygone era, while investigating Tzaneen as a relocation venue, by checking into Tzaneen’s Coach House Hotel & Spa.
It was built in 1983, close to the site of the original staging post used by travellers in the frenzied gold rush days, and incorporates some of the old walls and cast-iron windows that were part of the rustic accommodation used by those hardy 19th century travellers.

Tzaneen Country Lodge waxes lyrical about what residents hold dear: “Tzaneen is a fantastic base from which to explore the surrounds. Situated at the foot of the Northern Drakensberg, it has spectacular scenery and fantastic attractions waiting to be explored.”

The name Tzaneen comes from the Nguni word “Tsaneng” or “come together”, which is more than fitting for the natural, cultural, and historical sites just waiting to be explored here.

The Agricultural Hub page of Fairview Lodge gives visitors to the area a good idea of how Tzaneen earns its keep in the economic scheme of things. Basically, it rests heavily on different kinds of fruit, vegetable, animal, and timber farming, across a region of about 20 000km².

Here are a few of the many agriculture-related facts that they’ve highlighted:

• The range of crops produced here includes citrus fruit, mangoes, bananas, avocados, litchis, tomatoes, macadamia nuts, coffee, tea, and timber;
• Tzaneen produces an impressive 40 percent of South Africa’s avocados, and 90 percent of its tomatoes;
• The town boasts the biggest pine and blue gum plantations in Limpopo;
• Limpopo yields more than a third of all of South Africa’s citrus production, which amounts to 90 million cartons annually, in total;
• Offshoot products such as avocado pureés and oils, and the pickles and sauces made from peppadews, are bottled and/or packaged here. The former comprises 50 percent of the world’s avocado products, while the latter is exported to 26 other countries;
  • Tzaneen is a major growing area for macadamia nuts, positioning South Africa as the world’s third-largest producer;
• The mangoes, bananas, and Clemengold nectarines grown here are earning the country both significant export revenue, and much culinary acclaim.

According to Payscale, the most talked-about employer in Tzaneen is Westfalia Fruit, a trusted supplier of fresh produce to international retail, food-service, and wholesale customers for more than 75 years.

While the average salary in Tzaneen is just R186k per annum, much more can be earned in education, ops management, and manufacturing-related production.

A glance at the Executive Placements job portal will reveal that jobs in finance (such as a senior accountant, or a finance manager, for example), jobs in IT and other highly technical fields (such as an operations sysytems analyst, or an electronic technician), and tourism, hotel and food and beverage management are in healthy supply – together with agriculture jobs, of course (such as a training and development manager, a packhouse maintenance manager, or a general/operations manager in the agricultural industry).

According to Weather Speak, Tzaneen boasts long, warm, and partly cloudy summers, and winters that are short, cool, dry and clear. Best times to visit Tzaneen, or to engage in outdoor activities if you’re a resident here, are late March to mid June, or mid July to mid October.

Despite this indication of when the optimal weather can be experienced in the town, it is good to note that throughout the year the temperature typically varies from between 8°C and 28°C, and is rarely below 5°C or above 34°C.

When it comes to precipitation, the rainy season in Tzaneen typically takes place from 23 October until 26 March, with a 24 percent or more chance of rain on any given day. The wettest month, however, is undoubtedly December, when at least 0.04mm of rain falls on an average of 13.8 days.

The TripAdvisor list of the top four things to experience and then tick off during your time off in Tzaneen, goes as follows:

• Debengeni Waterfall, an idyllic example of the untouched appeal of Limpopo, where the Ramadipha River tumbles 80m into a massive bowl of water below – thereby demonstrating the unharnessed power of nature. A perfect spot for picnics, but beware of slippery rocks;
• Glencoe Giant Baobab, the second largest tree in South Africa after the Sagole Baobab. It features a stem diameter of 15.9m, is 17m high, and has a crown diameter of 37m. This baobab is well over 2 000 years old, and gets a few visitors each month at its location outside Hoesdspruit – which has lead the land’s owner, Cecil Liversage, to pursue his plans to build a road to the tree, possibly a small café, and some ablution facilities. Watch this space;
• Panorama Pedals, a tour bike company based at Agatha Road, Arbor Park, Tzaneen, specialising in cycling tours that give athletes “the chance to experience an area in a fun and exhilarating way”;
• Vervet Money Foundation, a non-profit established in 1993, which rehabilitates and provides sanctuary to over 500 orphaned, injured, abused, ex-laboratory, and/or unwanted primates. The foundation, and its staff members, also makes a stand about general environmental protection by obtaining 80 percent of their power consumption from solar, and through the promotion of a do-no-harm vegan lifestyle.

For a more extensive list of activites to get up to in and around Tzaneen, click here.

Owner and principal of Seeff Tzaneen, Nicola Strydom, advises that the Tzaneen property market has seen “drastic expansion in recent years” – such that vacant land has become extremely rare, and developers have instead begun buying up “older properties on biggers stands”, for the purposes of rezoning these into townhouse complexes.

Two-bedroom townhouses and affordable three-bedroom homes are in high demand here, with Strydom noting that most of the recent buyers appear to be young professionals, or couples starting families; these individuals and couples are preferring to buy, rather than rent a home, as the rental market has become rather expensive, due to stock shortages.

Buying a property in the town, on the other hand, to live in or rent out, is proving a popular way to go – prices start from R400k in the more affordable areas such as Florapark; go up to around R1.9 million in lock-up security estates such as Riverside, Heritage Village, Tzangeni and Letaba River Estate (with the most popular estate being Golden Acres, which is situated close to the Tzaneen dam); and level out at R4 million in upmarket residential areas like Aquapark, Premierpark and Arbopark.

A new townhouse development called Villa Royale will be offering two-bed units at R950 000, and three bedroom units at R 1 850 000, once process is complete. On the other hand renting, she says, could see you paying R5k to R9k per month for a two-bed townhouse, and between R10k and R15k per month for a three-bed home.

In conclusion, it seems clear that taking the leap into property ownership in Tzaneen is certainly going to stand you in good stead, with prices “increasing at between 11 and 20 percent per annum”, according to experts in the property field, due to phenomenal local demand.