Noupoort is a small town in the eastern
Karoo region of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
The town lies 54 km south of
Colesberg
Colesberg is a town with 17,354 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, located on the main N1 road from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
In a sheep-farming area spread over half-a-million hectares, greater Colesberg breeds many ...
and 45 km north of
Rosmead Junction on the
N9 National Route. It was laid out on a portion of the farm Caroluspoort, was administered by a village management board from 1937 and attained municipal status in 1942. Afrikaans for ‘narrow pass’, the name refers to a gap in the Carlton Hills 27 km to the north-west.
It revolved principally around the railways and is still used as traction change-over facility from diesel to electric locomotives on the Noupoort-
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...
line. It was serviced by Midlandia, a locomotive complex a few kilometres to the south of town, especially during the diesel era up to the late 1900s. Nowadays it links up with the electrified line to
De Aar
De Aar is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It has a population of around 42,000 inhabitants.
It is the second-most important railway junction in the country, situated on the line between Cape Town and Kimberley. The juncti ...
, part of the main artery for iron ore and manganese exports from the
Northern Cape through
Port Elizabeth harbour on the south coast.
Commercial activity in Noupoort is heavily dependent on railway activity. After a long period of increasingly less demand on the rail network, the town suffered from a drastic decline in local business leading to increasingly dire socioeconomic conditions for the local population. Poverty increased concomitantly with the decline in rail activity.
Christian Care Centre
In 1992, the Noupoort Christian Care Centre
was established with the purpose of drug and alcohol rehabilitation in the area. The Centre took advantage of run down existing infrastructure to build a large centre. The remoteness of Noupoort soon promoted the centre as the last resort for rehabilitation.
The town's reaction was initially negative to hosting such a rehabilitation program and the program was received with much suspicion, which proved to be true after multiple abuse cases and deaths which occurred due to negligence.
References
{{Pixley ka Seme District Municipality
Populated places in the Umsombomvu Local Municipality