Joe Gqabi District Municipality is one of the seven districts of Eastern Cape province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The seat of Joe Gqabi is

Barkly East Barkly East is a town in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, seat of the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, and 117 km by road E.S.E. of Aliwal North, lying in the mountainous area just south of Lesotho. The town lies at the southern tip of t ...

. The majority of its 349,768 people speak

IsiXhosa Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...

( 2011 census). Before 1 February 2010 it was known as the Ukhahlamba District Municipality; its name was changed in recognition of

Joe Gqabi Joe Nzingo Gqabi (6 April 1929 – 31 July 1981) was a South African African National Congress activist, who was the ANC's chief representative in Zimbabwe at the time of his assassination by South African Defence Force in Ashdown Park, Harare (t ...

(1929–1981), an

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

member who was a journalist for the ''

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

'', a member of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, and one of the Pretoria Twelve.

Geography

Local municipalities

The district contains the following local municipalities:

Neighbours

Joe Gqabi is surrounded by the following districts:

Demographics

The following statistics are from the 2011 census:

Gender

Ethnic group

Age

Politics

Election results

Election results for Joe Gqabi (prev. Ukhahlamba) in the

South African general election, 2004 General elections were held in South Africa on Wednesday, 14 April 2004. The African National Congress (ANC) of President Thabo Mbeki, which came to power after the end of the apartheid system in 1994, was re-elected with an increased majority. ...

. * Population 18 and over: 180 079 2.76% of total population* Total votes: 114 530 3.55% of total population* Voting % estimate: 63.60% votes as a % of population 18 and over

References

External links

Official website
{{Municipalities of the Eastern Cape District municipalities of the Eastern Cape Joe Gqabi District Municipality