Eastern Cape


The Eastern Cape is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha. Due to its temperate climate and Victorian towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also known for having been home to many anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and Chris Hani.
The second largest province in the country after the Northern Cape, it was formed in 1994 out of the Xhosa homelands or bantustans of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province. The central and eastern part of the province is the traditional home of the indigenous Xhosa people. In 1820 this area, which was known as the Xhosa Kingdom, began to be settled by Europeans who originally came from Great Britain and Ireland. Eastern Cape is the only province in South Africa where the number of Black Africans declined from 86.6% to 85.7% since Apartheid ended in 1994.

History

The Eastern Cape province was formed in 1994, incorporating areas from the former Xhosa homelands of the Transkei and Ciskei, together with what was previously part of the Cape Province. This resulted in several anomalies, including the fact that the Province has four supreme courts, Gqeberha, and had enclaves of KwaZulu-Natal in the province. The latter anomaly has fallen away with amendments to municipal and provincial boundaries.
The Xhosa Kingdom was one of the most powerful kingdoms in Africa, and had all states in the Eastern Cape as tributaries. Any group, people, or tribe that recognised the Xhosa Kingdom as Paramouncy became Xhosa, practiced Xhosa culture and used isiXhosa as their main language. Some of the tribes that fall under the category of Xhosa people include: AmaMpondo, AbaThembu, AmaMpondomise, AmaHlubi, AmaBhaca, AmaXesibe, AmaBomvana and more.

European settlers

In the late 18th century the Dutch Cape Colony slowly expanded eastwards from its original centre around Cape Town. This led to the establishment in 1786 of the Dutch settlement of Graaff-Reinet – named for the Governor of the Cape Colony Cornelius Jacob van de Graaff and for his wife Hester Cornelia van de Graaff. Later, during the Napoleonic Wars of 1803–1815, Britain took control of the Cape Colony and encouraged British citizens to migrate there as a means to boost the British population in the area.
From the early 1800s until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the Eastern Cape saw colonisation by British migrants. They established most of the towns, naming them either after places in the United Kingdom, members of the British royal family, or after the original founders and their families. British colonization saw schools, churches, hospitals, town centres and government buildings built to speed up development. Some of the older European settlements include Fort Beaufort, Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, Salem, Bathurst, East London, Paterson, Cradock, Fort Beaufort and King William's Town.

Geography

The Eastern Cape gets progressively wetter from west to east. The west is mostly semiarid Karoo, except in the far south, which is temperate rainforest in the Tsitsikamma region. The coast is generally rugged with interspersed beaches. Most of the province is hilly to very mountainous between Graaff-Reinet and Rhodes including the Sneeuberge, Stormberge, Winterberge and Drakensberg. The highest point in the province is Ben Macdhui at 3001 m. The east from East London and Queenstown towards the KwaZulu-Natal border – a region known previously as Transkei – is lush grassland on rolling hills, punctuated by deep gorges with intermittent forest.
Eastern Cape has a coast on its east which lines southward, creating shores leading to the south Indian Ocean. In the northeast, it borders the following districts of Lesotho:
  • Mohale's Hoek District – west of Quthing
  • Quthing District – between Mohale and Qacha's Nek
  • Qacha's Nek District – east of Quthing
Domestically, it borders the following provinces:
  • Western Cape – west
  • Northern Cape – northwest
  • Free State – north
  • KwaZulu-Natal – far northeast

    Climate

Climate is highly varied. The west is dry with sparse rain during winter or summer, with frosty winters and hot summers. The area Tsitsikamma to Grahamstown receives more precipitation, which is also relatively evenly distributed and temperatures are mild. Further east, rainfall becomes more plentiful and humidity increases, becoming more subtropical along the coast with summer rainfall. The interior can become very cold in winter, with heavy snowfalls occasionally occurring in the mountainous regions between Molteno and Rhodes.
  • Gqeberha: Jan Max: 25 °C, Min: 18 °C; Jul Max: 20 °C, Min: 9 °C
  • Molteno & Barkly East: Jan Max 28 °C, Min 11 °C; Jul Max: 14 °C, Min: -7 °C

    Cities and towns

  • Gqeberha
  • East London
  • Makhanda
  • Graaf-Reinet
  • Maletswai
  • Port Alfred
  • Queenstown
  • Jeffreys Bay
  • Somerset East
  • Alice
  • Qonce
  • Mthatha
  • Bhisho
  • Uitenhage
  • Mdantsane
  • Butterworth
  • Port St. Johns
  • Mbizana
  • Flagstaff
  • Libode
  • Cofimvaba
  • Dutywa
  • Fort Beaufort
  • Komga
  • Peddie
  • Stutterheim
  • Qumbu
  • Mount Frere
  • Ntabankulu
  • Matatiele
  • Burgersdorp
  • Lady Grey
  • Maclear
  • Nxuba
  • Cacadu
  • Ngcobo
  • Cala
  • Kareedouw
  • Kirkwood

    Municipalities

The Eastern Cape Province is divided into two metropolitan municipalities and six district municipalities. The district municipalities are in turn divided into 31 local municipalities.
Major cities and towns include the following :
  • East London
  • Port Elizabeth
  • Umtata
  • Queenstown
  • Grahamstown
  • Jeffreys Bay
  • Alice
  • Sterkspruit
  • Graaff-Reinet
  • Somerset East
  • Mount Fletcher
  • Butterworth
  • Mount Frere
  • Mdantsane
  • Cradock
  • Matatiele
  • King William's Town
  • Aliwal North
  • Uitenhage
  • Idutywa
  • Engcobo
  • Maclear
  • Alexandria
  • Port Alfred
  • Fort Beaufort
  • Peddie
  • Willowvale
  • Elliotdale
  • Kentane
  • Tsomo
  • Tsolo
  • Cofimvaba
  • Nqamakwe
  • Bisho

    Demographics

As of the 2022 census, the Eastern Cape had a population of 7,230,204, an increase of 10.2% from the prior census in 2011. It is the fourth-most populous of South Africa's nine provinces. The median age is 27, an increase of 5 years from 2011.

Race/Ethnicity

In the 2022 census, 85.7% of the population described themselves as Black African, 7.6% as Coloured, 5.6% as White and 0.5% as Indian/Asian. A large majority of Black African people in the province are Xhosa, with 78.8% of residents in Eastern Cape identifying as Xhosa as of 2011. Unlike most of South Africa, a substantial proportion of the White population is of British descent. Roughly half of White South Africans in Eastern Cape are English-speakers of British and Irish descent while the other half are of Boer/Afrikaner ancestry. Eastern Cape is one of only two provinces in South Africa where Whites of British descent outnumber Boers/Afrikaners, the other being KwaZulu-Natal.
Population Group1996200120112022
Black African86.6%87.2%86.3%85.7%
Coloured7.7%7.7%8.3%7.6%
White5.4%4.9%4.7%5.6%
Indian/Asian0.3%0.3%0.4%0.5%
Othern/an/a0.3%0.7%

Languages

In the 2022 census, 81.8% of the population reported their first language as Xhosa, 9.6% as Afrikaans, 4.8% as English, and 2.4% as Sotho. The Eastern Cape is the only province in which native Xhosa-speakers form a majority of the population.

Religion

As of the 2022 census, 86.1% of the population described themselves as Christians, 11.0% stated that they practiced Traditional African religions, and 0.6% described themselves as Muslim. 1.5% of the population described themselves as being atheist, agnostic, or having no religious affiliation.

Economy

The Eastern Cape is the poorest province in South Africa and has the highest expanded and official unemployment rate in the country. Subsistence agriculture predominates in the former homelands, resulting in widespread poverty. A multi billion Rand industrial development zone and deep water port are being developed in Coega to boost investment in export-oriented industries. Overall the province only contributes 8% to the national GDP despite making 13.5% of the population. The real GDP of Eastern Cape stands at an estimated R230.3billion in 2017, making the province the fourth largest regional economy in SA ahead of Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Agriculture

There is much fertile land in the Eastern Cape, and agriculture remains important. The fertile Langkloof Valley in the southwest has large deciduous fruit orchards. In the Karoo there is widespread sheep farming.
The Alexandria-Makhanda area produces pineapples, chicory and dairy products, while coffee and tea are cultivated at Magwa. People in the former Transkei region are dependent on cattle, maize and sorghum-farming. An olive nursery has been developed in collaboration with the University of Fort Hare to form a nucleus of olive production in the Eastern Cape.
Domestic stock farming is slowly giving way to game farming on large scale. Eco-tourism is resulting in economic benefits, and there is lower risk needed to protect wild, native game against drought, and the natural elements. Habitat loss and poaching pose the greatest problems.
The area around Stutterheim is being cultivated extensively with timber plantations.
The basis of the province's fishing industry is squid, some recreational and commercial fishing for line fish, the collection of marine resources, and access to line-catches of hake.
In the Eastern Grasslands landscape centred on Rhodes and Maclear, Conservation South Africa has been involved in initiatives on sustainable grazing and strengthening wool value chains.