Triangle is a small town in

Masvingo Province Masvingo is a province in southeastern Zimbabwe. It has a population of 1.485 million as of the 2012 census, ranking fifth out of Zimbabwe's ten provinces. Established as Victoria Province by the British South Africa Company, it was one of the ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

, and is located 125 km south-east from

Masvingo Masvingo is a city in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city is situated close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and close to Lake Mutirikwi, its recreational park, th ...

, between Ngundu Growth Point and

Chiredzi Chiredzi is a town in Masvingo province in south-east Zimbabwe. It is located near the Runde River, which has a tributary called the ' Chiredzi'. As the administrative center for Chiredzi District, it is where both the rural and district counci ...

. The town is located in the district of

, one of the seven in Masvingo Province. The town of Triangle is so named because when Murray MacDougall first tried to grow sugar cane, only three pieces of sugar cane grew, He said he could only do one thing with them and that was to make a triangle. It was the first attempt to grow sugar cane in Rhodesia now Zimbabwe.

Background

The town developed around

Tongaat Hulett Tongaat Hulett is an agriculture and agri-processing business, focusing on the complementary feedstocks of sugarcane and maize. The company had its origins on the North coast of KwaZulu-Natal, specifically the town of Tongaat. The company was fo ...

Triangle Estate A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear ...

, Zimbabwe's 2nd largest

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

scheme, rivaling

Hippo Valley Estate Hippo Valley Estate () is a sugar estate found near the town of Chiredzi in Chiredzi District of southeastern Zimbabwe, on the Runde River near the border with Mozambique. Background It was established in 1956 as a citrus estate and soon it ...

Triangle Estate

In the company's fields, 13,500ha of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

and are under irrigation and there is a large

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

mill on the estate. Sugar cane was first planted in the region in 1931 by

Thomas Murray McDougall Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

and was first processed in 1939. Due to the economic decline the country is going through, like at

Hippo Valley Hippo Valley Estate () is a sugar estate found near the town of Chiredzi in Chiredzi District of southeastern Zimbabwe, on the Runde River near the border with Mozambique. Background It was established in 1956 as a citrus estate and soon it d ...

, production of sugar has fallen in recent years. The decline in production has been compounded by a large body of displaced farmers who have settled on some of its productive fields, further hampering production.Sugar production falls (accessed 19 June 2010) At formation of the Sugar Estates, much of the labour to work the land was brought in from neighbouring Malawi and Zambia. These labourers came in to work on the sugar cane plantations as general labourers and cane cutters. As a result of intermarriages between the local Karanga, Shangaan and the plantation workers who were predominantly foreigners, this has resulted in the mix of ethnicities and cultures in Triangle and the Southern districts of Zimbabwe. The majority of the town's residents are employed by the company.

Sports

First-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

has been played in Triangle at the well-established cricket venue located in the town. There is also a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club called Triangle United.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=August 2019 Populated places in Masvingo Province