Thohoyandou (Venda: Ṱhohoyanḓou) is a town in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. It is the administrative centre of Vhembe District Municipality and Thulamela Local Municipality. The town is situated in the south of Vhembe district, north-west of Malamulele on the R524 main road between Louis Trichardt and the Kruger National Park.
Thohoyandou is a town of about 70,000 people (2011). It is noted for its rich cultural heritage and history. Today, Thohoyandou is one of the fastest-growing towns in Limpopo. It is also the location of the University of Venda, which is one of the few higher education institutions in the area.
Location of Limpopo Province in South Africa.
Historical Context
Thohoyandou became the capital of the former bantustan of Venda, while Dzanani is the traditional capital of Venda and the home of the VhaVenda kings. Thohoyandou was built at Tshiluvhi which was under Khosi vho Netshiluvhi. Construction started in 1977 with P East and P West residential area/location as R293 town, a shopping centre and Venda Government buildings.
The Netshiluvhis were the first occupants of the area as far back as 1400 AD, i.e. after the collapse of Mapungubwe Kingdom. They were forcefully removed from this area between 1960 and 1970 by the apartheid government of the Venda Bantustan under khosi vho Mphephu Ramabulana. The name Tshiluvhi comes from the Venda word "luvha" which means to pay damages or respect.
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The former Venda president built his palace and his ministerial resident at Tshiluvhis chiefs kraal as they were already moved by the apartheid government. The following leaders and their subject under Netshiluvhi were forcefully removed from their areas. Some of the Netshiluvhi are known by different names: Malima, Khorommbi, Mathomu, Magidi, and Mudau.
Thohoyandou was established and built at a large portion of the village of Tshiluvhi in the late 1970s. It was established by president Patrick Ramaano Mphephu who was the Prime Minister of the Venda Bantustan. Thohoyandou became the capital of Venda when Venda was declared a republic in 1979, and Thovhele ´Mphephu became the President of the Republic of Venda. A stadium was built in Thohoyandou to celebrate the independence of Venda, and was known as the Venda Independence Stadium.
Location and Geography
Thohoyandou is situated in the south of Vhembe district, north-west of Malamulele on the R524 main road between Louis Trichardt and the Kruger National Park. This is the lush agricultural centre of Vhembe, with banana plantations, subtropical fruit, tobacco and maize lands.
Other towns which are nearby Thohoyandou are Sibasa, 8 km; Dzanani, 45 km; Malamulele, 45 km; Makhado, 85 km; Musina, 139 km; and Polokwane, 188 km.
For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Thohoyandou are -22.946 deg latitude, 30.485 deg longitude, and 2,375 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Thohoyandou contains significant variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 696 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 2,178 feet. Within 10 miles contains significant variations in elevation (3,136 feet). Within 50 miles contains large variations in elevation (4,695 feet).
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The area within 2 miles of Thohoyandou is covered by cropland (88%), within 10 miles by cropland (60%) and shrubs (18%), and within 50 miles by shrubs (39%) and cropland (35%).
Urban Planning and Infrastructure
Thohoyandou is the main development node in Thulamela Local Municipality with a total of approximately 70,000 residents within the boundaries of the town. Thohoyandou's CBD was originally designed as a super mall with large walkways and water fountains, flowers and green areas. The parking lot was situated on the outskirts and people would walk to the shops.
Shortage of vacant land within the CBD has slowed its growth and kept it from expanding further. The CBD has also suffered from a lack of maintenance over the past fifteen years.
Emergency Services Accessibility in the CBD
Thohoyandou has rapidly filled up the spatial limits of its central business district (CBD) to such an extent that the latest retail development, the Thavhani Mall, has leapfrogged the P-East residential area into the open spaces to the south of the CBD across the R 254.
The study method mapped the CBD’s urban morphological elements and determined, through qualitative descriptions, the frictional spaces each of the emergency services would face in attempting to access all parts of the CBD. The findings were, firstly, that in a ‘worst case scenario’ the emergency services would face formidable infrastructure, human and mobility obstacles in their pathways. The second finding is that the emergency services would not be able to cope with a high-impact disaster or a multiplicity of disasters.
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This article argues that police, ambulance and fire brigade services need to access a settlement’s built fabric timely to execute their emergency functions. If the services’ ability to penetrate the built form is compromised for any reasons, then the situation of disaster risk is greater.
Like many former R 239 towns, Thohoyandou has no street names to speak of. The absence of precise geographical place and street nomenclature presents problems for emergency services, not to mention the ordinary citizen.
The problem statement of this study is based on a ‘worst case scenario’, where a multiplicity of human-induced disasters occur concurrently. The question is as follows: would the emergency services gain the requisite level of accessibility into Thohoyandou’s CBD? The purpose of this study was to ascertain the extent to which the current spatial footprint would act as impediments to the access of any parts of the CBD for emergency services.
The study methodology consisted of several approaches. Firstly, an urban morphology approach with specific reference to figure-ground spatial mapping was undertaken for (1) the underlying erven structure, (2) the built form, (3) open spaces and parking spaces, (4) street-level obstacles and (5) street trading areas.
Thirdly, all service providers, that is, police, ambulance and fire brigade, were examined in terms of their accessibility within the CBD. Lastly, a matrix was constructed highlighting the hazards generated in a worst case scenario.
The study location, CBD, is a relatively small but intensively built up area.
Urban Morphology
The more or less grid structure of the CBD had its beginnings in 1977. The initial government buildings were erected with the establishment of the Republic of Venda in 1979, to the north of the present CBD.
During the Venda Republic era, the CBD and the neighbouring residential areas were demarcated through the work of South African consultants supported by South African Government finances.
Today the CBD is dominated by single- and two-level buildings, with a few vacant erven (plots). There is very little in terms of green areas in the CBD. Presently, the growth of central Thohoyandou is unabated, with new building construction evident outside of the CBD ring road.
Emergency Services Perspectives
This article asserts that no part of Thohoyandou’s CBD should be beyond the accessibility requirements of emergency services. If any service cannot access a certain area where it needs to render its services, then it is failing and thus may not be able to respond to the disaster it is called upon to control and eliminate. Legal and illegal car parks occupy 99% of spaces, the taxi ranks and the bus terminus are in grid lock, and festive people occupy 90% of left-over pedestrian spaces.
Furthermore, there are a great number of physically challenged people in every street in a celebratory mood, and street traders are occupying all the open spaces they can access for maximum trading opportunities.
Meanwhile, robberies by well-armed and violent gangs are going on in two of the largest shopping malls and there were five substantial fires started by arsonists in street bins and shop fronts with flammable materials.
Police Services
The South Africa Police Services (SAPS) station is strategically located in the centre-west of the CBD. In evaluating the penetration of the physical structure of the CBD, the study investigated pathways for police foot patrols and police vehicles.
Assumptions were that (1) the police would depart from the police station and (2) the police could approach any part of the CBD from any vantage point using the CBD ring road. The police pathways (Figure 8) shows that foot patrols and vehicles would be in a position to penetrate any part of the CBD.
There are 23 drivable entries into the CBD: four from the north, three from the east, eight from the south and eight from the west.
Ambulance Services
Complicating the role of ambulance services and the CBD situation is that there is no hospital or a large medical facility within Thohoyandou’s CBD. Figure 9 illustrates that there are a total of 15 possible entry points from the ring road for ambulances.
The CBD shows that ambulances would face some serious obstacles arising from the configuration of the built form. Examples include the north-west corner of the CBD where an ambulance would have to drive in circles to reach its destination. To the south and south west, the continuously built-up area acts as another set of barriers.
A large part of the CBD would require ambulance personnel to move with stretchers and medical equipment on foot. Vhembe District Municipality is responsible for this service.
Fire Brigade Services
Thohoyandou’s CBD has had several significant fires in the recent past that destroyed several retail and food outlets. These include the Shoprite building that was burnt down in 2006, Nandos restaurant in 2008 (Tshikhudo 2008) and a hardware store south of Game in 2013.
In 2015, the fire brigade had three functional fire engines, two of which were less than five years old and one was much older than the other two.
The CBD has three fire hydrants located at (1) the old Shoprite shopping complex at the centre of the CBD, (2) the UIF Building to the east of the CBD and (3) Game to the west of the CBD.
From the above cited interview of Mr Makumule, it is clear that fire engines are able to negotiate all the streets within the CBD (see Figure 10). The major obstacles that the fire engines would face when dowsing out fires would be crowd control and having to navigate through parked and moving vehicles.
Each building is required by regulation to have fire extinguishing equipment. A rapid visual assessment of the buildings in the area revealed that the required firefighting equipment was generally not in place. However, some fire extinguishers were clearly visible in a number of newer buildings in the CBD.
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University of Venda
The University of Venda is a South African Comprehensive rural based university, located in Thohoyandou in Limpopo province. The University of Venda has one main Campus in Thohoyandou. The campus also houses the Art Gallery, which has a display of carvings, paintings and clay pots made by both students and local community members.
Furthermore, the campus has a full-time Sports Center that is used for indoor sports as well as other recreational activities such as drama and dance.
Climate
In Thohoyandou, the summers are long, warm, humid, and partly cloudy and the winters are short, cool, dry, and clear. Based on the tourism score, the best time of year to visit Thohoyandou for warm-weather activities is from late March to mid October.
The warm season lasts for 5.1 months, from October 20 to March 24, with an average daily high temperature above 82°F. The hottest month of the year in Thohoyandou is January, with an average high of 85°F and low of 69°F.
The cool season lasts for 2.1 months, from June 3 to August 5, with an average daily high temperature below 75°F. The coldest month of the year in Thohoyandou is July, with an average low of 50°F and high of 73°F.
In Thohoyandou, the average percentage of the sky covered by clouds experiences significant seasonal variation over the course of the year. The clearer part of the year in Thohoyandou begins around March 13 and lasts for 7.4 months, ending around October 26. The clearest month of the year in Thohoyandou is June, during which on average the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 93% of the time.
The cloudier part of the year begins around October 26 and lasts for 4.6 months, ending around March 13. The cloudiest month of the year in Thohoyandou is December, during which on average the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy 46% of the time.
The wetter season lasts 4.8 months, from November 1 to March 25, with a greater than 22% chance of a given day being a wet day. The month with the most wet days in Thohoyandou is December, with an average of 12.1 days with at least 0.04 inches of precipitation.
The drier season lasts 7.2 months, from March 25 to November 1. The month with the fewest wet days in Thohoyandou is June, with an average of 0.8 days with at least 0.04 inches of precipitation.
The rainy period of the year lasts for 7.5 months, from September 21 to May 3, with a sliding 31-day rainfall of at least 0.5 inches. The month with the most rain in Thohoyandou is January, with an average rainfall of 3.5 inches.
The rainless period of the year lasts for 4.6 months, from May 3 to September 21. The month with the least rain in Thohoyandou is June, with an average rainfall of 0.1 inches.
Thohoyandou experiences extreme seasonal variation in the perceived humidity. The muggier period of the year lasts for 5.1 months, from November 9 to April 12, during which time the comfort level is muggy, oppressive, or miserable at least 13% of the time. The month with the most muggy days in Thohoyandou is January, with 15.9 days that are muggy or worse.
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