Elphick opened a trading store in the fledging town and established the commercial foundations of Malalane. Visitors to the region increased when the hunting of leopard, lion and buffalo was stopped by an initiative enforced by The Kruger Shooting Concession. The Kruger National Park was proclaimed a protected wildlife reserve and the area started attracting more wildlife enthusiasts than hunters.

Farming operations in the area benefitted from the barbed wire fence that was erected to contain the wild game within the neighbouring reserve, and farmer’s crops were not decimated by the hungry game. Buffalo and elephant still tended to stray onto the farms but the majority of farmers were conservationists at heart and dealt with these incursions without bringing out the big guns.

The dirt road that passed through the region was originally commissioned in 1942 by the government of the old Transvaal for military use and was tarred some time later. The new tar road increased traffic passing through the town but commerce in Malalane still suffered from the fact that traveller’s viewed the town as a convenient pit-stop enroute to Mozambique. It would be a long time before the town established itself as being more than that.

The Kruger National Park fence was upgraded in 1963 and eventually electrified in 1965 to meet international standards. Initiatives to contain the spread of foot and mouth disease in the park were also implemented. This severely curtailed the movement of elephant, buffalo, lion and hippo that troubled the farmers which meant they could invest more heavily in developing their farms.

Captain GJ Elphick sold his beloved farm to Andrews of Barberton after the death of his wife, Rosa Louisa. Andrews sold it to Allan Francis Dowdle in 1940. Dowdle was a businessman from Johannesburg and not particularly interested in farming. He divided Elphick’s farm into 50 acre plots that he sold off from the princely sum of £1 000 each.

There was a small railway sub-station in town that housed the post office. Minty & Sons owned the three trading stores located close to the station. There were a few English-speaking residents who set up home in town and a spattering of Portuguese farmers who had come across from Mozambique. Apart from the local African population, the town was sparsely populated by the local families that farmed in the area.

One of these farmers was James Henry Martins who ran a head of cattle on a farm called Minnehaha. He built his family home high up on the surrounding mountainside to avoid contracting malaria which is a disease that was rife at the time and responsible for the deaths of many people in the area. The Martins homestead was built from stone extracted from a local quarry and the wooden finishes were expertly crafted by a builder from Wales and a cabinet maker from England. During the Anglo-Boer war, Martins famously hid refugees in the cellar of his house and he was affectionately nicknamed “Mkulumazonke” by the local Swazi people, meaning “he who can speak of everything”.

Dowdle sold plots with water rights which was critical for irrigation. Water was sourced from a dam on Spago Farm. A canal was partially constructed to improve the supply of water to these plots but was never finished. Angry plot owners challenged Dowdle who continued to sell plots with water rights regardless of the fact that the water supply was defunct. The homeowners were eventually forced to drop a borehole on the bank of the Crocodile Water to pump water for the irrigation scheme and for local residents. The lack of water and growing discontent with dodgy Dowdle led to the establishment of the Malelane Irrigation Board in 1955.

The town of Malalane had only one street which was known as Stasieweg (Station Road). Today, it still has only one main street and the town has grown outwardly from this busy thoroughfare. One of the stipulations of the government at the time for the tarring of the main street through Malalane was that water from the original pump on the Crocodile River had to be directed to the few residences and businesses on Stasieweg, aswell as an additional three water points for the convenience of local residents living on the outskirts of the town.

The water was pumped to a reservoir built near the town which led to more homes being built and more people moving to the area. There was no formal municipality operating in the area at the time and homeowners had to deal with their own sewerage and rubbish removal.

The first electricity scheme for the town was established by Nico Horn at a garage in Malalane. A 75kW generator supplied electricity daily from 07:00 to 23:00 to homes, shops, a butchery and the garage. This scheme continued until the state-run electricity enterprise, Eskom, began to supply power to Malelane in 1962.

Most local events and town meetings were held in the local church buildings until Rob Ferreira, as representative of Malalane Development Company, donated £30 towards the building of a town hall. He also donated a stand that the town hall could be built on, with the support of Lala de Villiers, the wife of the local farmer who built the water pump scheme for the town.

Malaria remained the biggest threat for local residents and houses had to be sprayed with insecticide during the hot summer months when mosquitoes were most active. A healthcare clinic was built by the local farmers to service the needs of the growing work force in and around Malalane.

The clinic lacked financial resources as it was not supported by local government and eventually fell into disrepair. Once again, the Malalane Development Association, assisted by the Malalane Farmer’s Association, obtained a suitable portion of land from Malalane Estates and built a second and better clinic.

An aerial photograph taken in 1964 of Malalane and the surrounding area shows that there were only 23 buildings in and around town; including two banks, two filling stations, the local school, two shops, a hotel and four churches. For some reason, there were always more churches in small towns than other establishments.

The town really started to boom when the local sugar industry became the economic driver of the town. A sugar mill was constructed for the Transvaal Suiker Beperk (TSB) and the company had to build an additional 70 homes close to the mill to accommodate its personnel. This small residential area became known as Mhlathi Kop (Head). TSB went on to build sport and recreation facilities for its employees and their families.

Agricultural co-operatives and a fruit juice factory popped up, and tropical fruit and citrus farming accompanied the growth of sugarcane farming. The town of Malalane continued to grow as agriculture, industry and tourism boomed and eventually a modern airport was constructed in 1991, close to the TSB sugar mill.