Gradings

Baleni-Soutini hot mineral spring (geo-thermal spring) is a unique natural feature in the otherwise arid Mopane veld wilderness, south east of Giyani, in Mopani District.  It has been declared as a Natural Heritage Site (1999), because of its unique ecology.  It is a hot spring of which the water has got mineral contents. A species of fish, the stunted population of Mozambique (Oreochromis mossambicus) lives in the fountain. The surrounding swamp is covered by mostly by bulrushes and reeds.

Indigenous people have made salt at this fountain for the past 2000 years according to archaeological excavations.  Stone tools also tell us that stone age people have been active at Baleni.  There are three similar fountains in Mopani District Municipality, but all three have been destroyed by developmental activities.  Baleni-Soutini is thus the only salt production site, where indigenous people harvested salt according to indigenous technologies, practices and customs. Every winter local traditional women still produce salt at Baleni.  Traditional customs which accompany the salt making process, include interaction with the ancestral world through ritual and appeasement offerings at the sacred dry leadwood tree (the shrine) – tangible or living heritage.  The natural fountain is significant to a broader indigenous community (then only the salt makers) because of its mythical character.  It is referred to as Mukhulu

The cultural landscape at Baleni includes ancient salt mounds, which date back to 250AD and which cover an area of 1.5 to 2 km in radius from the fountain eye.  The modern salt production siteand the shrine, are also part of the cultural landscape. Oral history abounds and because of all the myths, legends and other stories that are well known to all the people in surrounding communities and regularly told to visitors, the place and the fountain is a sacred site.  Intangible heritage abounds 

Besides being a sacred site, it is especially a gendered site, because salt making is an activity that only the women practice.  All the information, the indigenous technology and the oral traditions are transferred from one generation to the next.  Of the many indigenous people mentioned in the prayers, who made salt at Baleni and who acknowledged the sacredness of the fountain, the following are mentioned in the oral tradition: VaKaranga, BaNyai, Balemba, VaVenda, BoLobedu, VaTsonga.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge abounds amongst the elders, specifically the traditional women, who lived in close interaction with their natural environment, because they were dependant of it.