Musina

Copper and Papagoite in Quartz, from old Messina mine.

After serving in the Anglo-Boer War, Colonel John Pascoe "J.P." Grenfell (1866-1948), grandson of John Pascoe Grenfell and brother of Francis Octavius Grenfell, came to South Africa after hearing rumors of valuable copper being in the area.[2][3] Two prospectors, James Harper and James Campbell, told Grenfell that there were copper deposits, south of the Limpopo River, where the local tribe discovered them.[2] Apparently, the tribe had mined the copper, but the prospectors said their mining of it had ceased.

Grenfell went to the area and had the deposits inspected. After verifying that they were valuable, he purchased a farm, Berkenrode, near a planned mining site, in October 1903.[2] Five months later, he was granted a discoverer's certificate and, in that same month (March 1904), he founded the village Messina (later Musina).[2]

In January 1905, he founded, and chaired, the Messina (Transvaal) Development Company, which became one of the largest companies in South Africa.[2] Prior to becoming president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, served on the board of the company from 1914 to 1916.[4] Most people in Musina are either Venda people or Sotho people. Roughly 5% of residents in Musina are English-speaking Whites of British descent, almost exclusively this portion of the population are White Zimbabweans who have relocated to South Africa since the year 2000.[5]

The Limpopo River is a large river which flows strongly during the annual rainy season, when lichen and other plant species of the dry region come alive. Sometimes, it floods it's dry river banks. The low-shrub and thorny tree lands that surround Musina and thrive in rains are alive with animals in sanctuaries that offer experienced-only camping safari accessible by sand and rock road tracks. Access is generally good, with the N1 road from Johannesburg through Musina northwards being wide tar, as are most other roads in the area.

The link with Zimbabwe at Beitbridge has become one of the busiest roads in the world and the busiest in Africa, due to black market importers from Zimbabwe and people looking for employment. This is mainly due to thousands crossing the border into South Africa every day. According to the New York Times, in January 2009 Musina had a shifting population of about 15,000 foreigners, overwhelmingly Zimbabweans, many of whom lived in a refugee camp at the showground or in the streets.

"Musina" in TshiVenda means that which spoils. Alluding to the fact that copper "spoilt" the Venda's efforts to mine gold in the region, as they couldn't effectively separate the gold from the useless copper.

Musina experiences a hot semi-arid climate (Koppen: BSh) with hot temperatures most of the year. Average annual precipitation amounts to 372 mm (14.6 in), and is highly concentrated in the summer months from October to April when severe late-afternoon and evening thunderstorms are common. Winter is extremely dry, with almost no precipitation, typically recorded in the driest months from June to August. Clear skies and exceptionally low humidity at this time of the year enable temperatures to plunge close to freezing at night, although frost is fairly uncommon.

• Media related to Musina, South Africa at Wikimedia Commons