Gazankulu was a Bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government to be a semi-independent homeland for the Tsonga people.

Total length of Gazankulu, from Elim Hospital to Hazyview, was 317 km long, which is a distance equivalent of travelling from Pretoria to Harrismith.

The homeland consisted of the 'Mainland Gazankulu' which were Elim, Giyani and Malamulele, with 3 large exclaves, which were Bushbuckridge, Tzaneen and Phalaborwa.

The land of the Tsonga people proper starts from Elim Hospital near Makhado / Louis Trichardt and ends in Skukuza near Hazyview in Mpumalanga Province.

Under the leadership of Professor H.W.E Ntsanwisi, Gazankulu has successfully resisted forced removal of Tsonga people in the following areas during the 1960s, Elim Shirley community, the central government has already finalised the plan to forcibly remove the Tsonga from Elim Shirley farms and to dump them at an arid place in around Malamulele.

As the name suggests, these communities are found on the western, southern and eastern parts of Mount Ribola, a prominent landmark mountain around Elim.

Bungeni community, the largest Tsonga settlement in the Levubu river valley and the most populous Tsonga settlement in the whole Elim area, was, alongside its neighbour, Valdezia community, to be removed from the entire area completely and relocated into unknown location.

After he was de-recognized by the government, he was given to Hosi Bungeni as his headman, his land greatly reduced into a very small village called ka-Mtsetweni 3 km south of Levubu Agricultural plantation.

The paramount chieftainship was lost in 1930 upon the death of Hosinkulu Njhakanjhaka at waterval Shirley farm, after the death of the great Njhakanjhaka, the whole village of Elim was run and managed by the Swiss Mission Church, known today as Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa (EPCSA).

The Swiss missionaries at Elim were responsible for the disappearance of Njhakanjhaka paramount chieftainship since they are the ones that decided that Elim, as a 'Capital' site of the Swiss Mission Church in South Africa, should be run and managed by the Church, as a result, no new chief of the Njhakanjhaka clan was appointed after 1930.

The Swiss Mission Church in South Africa was later, during the 1960s, to play a positive role and to the benefit of the Njhakanjhaka chieftainship since they actively opposed the forced removal of the Elim Shirley Community.

However, during the 1960s, the apartheid government gave some form of recognition to the Njhakanjhaka chieftainship, the incumbent was given a status of an independent headman without a chief, but a tribal office was not granted until 1995.

Malele' land was big and he occupied the rolling hills southeast of Elim known to the apartheid government as "Bellevue".

Gazankulu, as a political entity, no longer exists, it is today part of Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.

In 1994, Gazankulu was sub-divided into different municipalities cross-cutting linguistic and cultural boundaries, a feature of a new democratic South Africa.

Shiluvane, under Hosi Muhlaba and other Tsonga areas in Ritavi has been merged to form Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality.