Tzaneen (/zəˈniːn/) is a large tropical garden town situated in the Mopani District Municipality of the Limpopo province in South Africa.

The town of Tzaneen is composed predominantly of Afrikaans-language whites and a mix of Tsonga and Balobedu and Bapedi .

In the extended area around the town, there are approximately 225,000 people from the Northern Sotho ethnic nation of Balobedu ba ga Modjadji.

The White population consists mainly of the Afrikaner people and a minority of English, Portuguese, Scottish, Irish, Jewish and German.

Tzaneen's name is derived from a Northern Sotho word 'Tsaaneng', which refers to a small basket called 'Tsana'.

Due to the fertile riverbank, the area was known to produce high-quality bamboo grass used to make different types of utensils.

Later the area would be known as DiTsaneng (a place where Tsaanas are made).The name was later bastardised by European colonial settlers into Tzaneen.

Weather can change very fast from clear skies to being misty, with the highest reaches enveloped in clouds.

The majority of Tzaneen's tropical indigenous forest were cleared for the production of pine, bluegum, banana, avocado and other agricultural plantations.

[citation needed] A wide range of fruit are grown in the Tzaneen area, notably mangoes, bananas, oranges, tomatoes and avocados.

Pine and eucalyptus plantations are also a common sight in the area around the town, particularly toward Modjadjiskloof, Magoebaskloof and Haenertsburg.

Tzaneen's subtropical conditions provide more suited weather for dense forests (high summer rainfall) than the thorny bushveld above the escarpment and further to the east.