Chris Hani is a landlocked district situated in the centre of the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

and is made up of eight local municipalities. Most of the communities live in rural areas.Local Regulation Case Study Report for Chris Hani District Municipality. South African Local Government Association. Accessed 11 February 2018.
/ref> The landscape ranges from moist uplands and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

hills to the

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ar ...

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

scrubland.2016. Healthy People - Healthy Economy Employee wellness is everybody’s business. South African Business Coalition on HIV & AIDS. Accessed 11 February 2018.
/ref> In 2016, the region reported a population of 840 000 people – accounting for 1.5% of South Africa’s total population and 12% of the Eastern Cape’s total population.2016. Chris Hani District Municipality 2017-2022 IDP. Chris Hani District Municipality. Accessed 11 February 2018.
/ref> Most of the district municipality’s employment is based on unskilled labour.

Local Municipalities

In the east are

Emalahleni Witbank (), officially Emalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wag ...

Engcobo Ngcobo (formerly Engcobo) is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Ngcobo is the main town of the Engcobo Local Municipality, which falls within the Chris Hani District Municipality of the Eastern Cape. It is situated in the west ...

, Intsika Yethu, Sakhisizwe Local Municipality and a section of

Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality is a local municipality of South Africa. It was established after the August 2016 local elections by the merging of Tsolwana, Inkwanca, Lukhanji local municipalities. Politics The municipal council consists o ...

. These local municipalities were originally part of the

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ban ...

Ciskei Ciskei (, or ) was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people-located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of , almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian O ...

, which were former homelands during

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, designed to separate different ethnic groups. This area is still characterised by its rural settlements and typical

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...

activities. Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality and

are lying in the west. These areas were originally part of the Republic of South Africa during Apartheid. The district’s agricultural industry is identified as dualism since it is divided into the first economy of commercial agriculture and the second economy of subsistence farming. In spite of its significant agricultural outputs, the municipalities are importers of processed food.

Service Delivery

The provision of basic services is particularly limited in the eastern municipalities which are largely rural. Backlogs include the delivery of tap water and adequate

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...

, school

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

and tarred roads.

Main Roads

The district is situated on the intersections of the N6 from

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

Aliwal North Aliwal North (officially Maletswai) is a town in central South Africa on the banks of the Orange River, Eastern Cape Province. It is a medium-sized commercial centre in the northernmost part of the Eastern Cape. History Sir Harry Smith, then ...

via

Komani Queenstown, officially Komani, is a town in the middle of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, roughly halfway between the smaller towns of Cathcart and Sterkstroom on the N6 National Route. The town was established in 1853 and is curr ...

, the R61 from Komani to

Mthatha Mthatha , formerly Umtata, is the main city of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality in Eastern Cape province of South Africa and the capital of OR Tambo District Municipality. The city has an airport, previously known as the K. D. Matanzi ...

through

Cofimvaba Cofimvaba is a town in Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The village is 79 km east of Queenstown on the route to Butterworth, in Thembuland. Probably named after the nearby stream which, after r ...

via Ngcobo and the N10 from

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

to Aliwal North via Cradock. Evidence of tarred roads in the rest of the district municipality is below the Eastern Cape’s provincial average – resulting in limited public transportation and access to

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

facilities in bigger towns.

Water

The district municipality is situated on the watershed of four river systems. These are namely the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

Great Fish River The Great Fish River (called ''great'' to distinguish it from the Namibian Fish River) ( af, Groot-Visrivier) is a river running through the South African province of the Eastern Cape. The coastal area between Port Elizabeth and the Fish Riv ...

Mbashe River Mbhashe River is one of the major rivers in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. It flows in a southeastern direction and has a catchment area of 6,030 km. The river drains into the Indian Ocean through an estuary located near the light ...

and

Great Kei River The Great Kei River is a river in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is formed by the confluence of the Black Kei River and White Kei River, northeast of Cathcart. It flows for and ends in the Great Kei Estuary at the Indian Ocean wi ...

. Surface water sources supply water for most of the towns in the area while only a few rely on

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

supplies. In rural areas, communities use water from unprotected springs, streams and boreholes. For the commercial farms in the west, the water supply is usually groundwater from boreholes.

References

External links

Chris Hani DM Official Website
{{Municipalities of the Eastern Cape District municipalities of the Eastern Cape Chris Hani District Municipality Orange River