Makhado

Municipality

Makhado Local Municipality

Local municipality. Official code LIM344. 7,623 km².

District and province

Vhembe, Limpopo

The district municipality sits between the municipality and the province.

Wards

38

On the 2026 boundaries, in force from 4 November 2026.

Electricity distributor

Makhado

Licensed to sell electricity here, at tariffs NERSA approves each year. Eskom supplies some areas directly. We have no map of those areas yet.

Water services

Vhembe District Municipality

Responsible for drinking water and wastewater here. The district, not the municipality, is the authority.

Fuel zone

3 zones: 13C, 16C and 63C

From the magisterial districts named like its towns: Soutpansberg (central of 29° 30'and 30° 30' longitude), Soutpansberg (east of 30° 30' longitude) and Soutpansberg (west of 29° 30' longitude). The zone sets what petrol costs.

500 kWh of electricity Up 8.8%

R1,710.34 a month

Cheapest household tariff open to a 60 A home (Pre-light 1: Rural villages (domestic low tariff, single phase, 60 A, up to 16 kVA installed NMD)). Prepaid, summer, VAT not stated by the source, so assumed excluded and added at 15%. Tariffs for 2026/27, from 1 July 2026.

Petrol 95 Down R0.01

R30.97 to R31.02 a litre

From 4 November 2026. It depends where you are: Soutpansberg (central of 29° 30'and 30° 30' longitude), R30.97 (zone 13C); Soutpansberg (west of 29° 30' longitude), R31.02 (zone 16C); Soutpansberg (east of 30° 30' longitude), R30.97 (zone 63C). In zone 13C, 1c less than last month and R9.14 more than a year ago.

Toll, Capricorn plaza on the N1 Up R1.50

R63.50 for a car

Mainline plaza, class 1, tariffs for 2026/27, from 1 March 2026. These are the toll points our records place inside the municipality; they hold only tolls set by notice in the Government Gazette.

Minimum wage Same everywhere

R30.23 an hour

The national minimum, from 1 March 2026. Many jobs have their own, higher minimum.

Prime lending rate Same everywhere Up 0.25

10.75% a year

Since 25 September 2026, when the repo rate rose to 7.25%. Most home loans follow prime.

The rand Same everywhere

R16.96 to the US dollar

On 13 November 2026, the newest business day. Worked out from the European Central Bank’s reference rates.

Drinking water

0 of 17 drinking-water systems at high or critical risk

None is rated high or critical. Blue Drop risk ratings, 2024. These are all of Vhembe’s, because the district is the water services authority.

Wastewater works

9 of 14 at high or critical risk

Biaba, Hlanganani, Mhinga and 6 more. Green Drop, 2024. These are all of Vhembe’s, because the district is the water services authority.

Water lost before it reaches a tap

Critical risk

Vhembe District Municipality is rated critical (100.0%) in the 2025 No Drop report.

Dams in Limpopo Province

95.6% full

Weekly report of 9 November 2026. All 29 dams of the province in the report, weighted by size. De Hoop Dam is 98.8% full. They are not necessarily the dams that supply Makhado.

Weather, November so far

35.6 °C hottest day

0.8 mm of rain from 1 to 5 November 2026; a normal November has 71 mm. Hottest on 1 November 2026; 1 day of 35 °C or more. Weather here is averaged over a 9 km grid: the 80 grid cells the municipality overlaps, each weighted by its area in it. Modelled estimates from a weather reanalysis, averaged over the whole place: not readings from a weather station, and not a forecast.

Land cover, 2021

52% shrubland

Of the land ESA WorldCover maps here in 2021: shrubland 52%, trees 33%, grassland 8.8%, cropland 4.2%. The shares add up to 100%.

Built-up area, 2020

70.6 km² 0.9% of the place

Roofs and paved ground as the satellite sees them (GHSL), every five years. 19.2 km² in 1975. It says nothing about who lives there or how. The two built-up figures measure different things: land cover counts every 10 m square that is mostly built on, roads and gardens between the roofs included; built-up area counts only the roofs and paved ground themselves, so it is the smaller.

People, 2026 (modelled)

528,100 about 69 a km²

An estimate from satellite-based models, not the census. Two models differ by about 17%.

Greenness, October 2026 Well above normal

0.44 on the greenness scale

How green the whole place looks from space; a normal October is 0.30, so well above normal. The scale runs from about 0 (bare ground) to about 0.9 (thick green growth). The satellite saw 100% of the area.

Drought, October 2026

No drought score +2.30 (0 is normal)

From rain over the last 3 and 12 months, evaporation and how green the land is, against the usual for the time of year: 0 is normal, −1 is dry, −2 is very dry. Our estimate, not an official drought declaration.

Fire, the twelve months to October 2026

555 fire detections

Fires spotted from space by NASA’s fire-spotting satellites, counted where they fall in the place; 0.0 ha burnt in 7 of those months (the rest not out yet). The most since 2012: 2014, 1,101. Seen from space, not fires reported on the ground.

Surface water, 2025

12.1 km² on average

Open water seen from space over the year: each spot counts for the share of clear looks it was wet; 10.0 km² was water nearly all year, 32.1 km² at some point. 87% of the place was seen clearly. The most since 1984: 2023, 19.2 km². Seen from space, not a survey; a missing year is left out, not counted as dry.

Nitrogen dioxide in the air, 2025

4.8 µg/m³, the year’s mean (modelled)

Near the ground, averaged over the whole place by a European air-quality model, not a reading at any address. WHO’s yearly guideline is 10 µg/m³. Winters 7.4 µg/m³, summers 2.8 µg/m³ over the last five years.

How hot the ground got, summer 2025 to 26

32.4 °C on clear mornings

How hot the ground itself gets (roofs, roads, soil, leaves), seen from space at about 10 in the morning, averaged over the municipality. It is not the air temperature; on a sunny day the ground is often far hotter.

Night light seen from space, 2025

0.38 nW/cm²/sr on average, 8.3% of the land lit

NASA Black Marble at about 1:30 in the morning, averaged over the municipality; 73% brighter than 2012. Light, nothing more: it can't tell grid from solar, or who pays.