Queenstown, officially Komani, is a town in the middle of the

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, roughly halfway between the smaller towns of

Cathcart Cathcart (; , )
is an area of

Sterkstroom Sterkstroom is a settlement in Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality of the Chris Hani District in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The village is on the Hex River, at the southern foot of the Stormberg, 272 km north-west of East Lon ...

on the N6 national route. The town was established in 1853 and is currently the commercial, administrative, and educational centre of the surrounding farming

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

History

Queenstown was founded in early 1853 under the direction of Sir

George Cathcart Major-General Sir George Cathcart (12 May 1794 – 5 November 1854) was a Scottish general and diplomat. He was killed in action at the Battle of Inkerman during the Crimean War. Military career Cathcart was born in Renfrewshire, a younger ...

, who named the settlement, and then fort, after

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. Work on its railway connection to

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

on the coast was begun by the

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

government of

John Molteno Sir John Charles Molteno (; 5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a politician and businessman who served as the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1872 to 1878. Early life Born in London into a large Anglo-Italian family, Molten ...

in 1876, and the line was officially opened on 19 May 1880. The town war memorial was designed by Sir

Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, Order of the British Empire, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scotland, Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, f ...

in 1922 with its sculpture by

Alice Meredith Williams Gertrude Alice Meredith Williams (1877 – 3 March 1934), who generally went by the name of Alice Meredith Williams, was a British sculptor, painter, illustrator and stained glass designer. Biography Williams was born in Liverpool, the ninth of ...

. The town prospered from its founding up to the worldwide depression of the 1930s, and again thereafter. In the 1960s, the majority of the Black population were moved east to the township of Ezibeleni, as part of the attempt to move African people to so-called "homelands". The area has in the past had very severe weather problems, luckily, often only affecting the surrounding areas. In 2002, heavy snowfall around Queenstown caused a severe disaster, especially since the area was not funded or ready for such a disaster. Then, in 2004, the surrounding areas of the Eastern Cape were affected by strong winds and heavy rainfall, although Queenstown once again escaped much flooding and some wind damage, power shortages soon followed. Other natural disasters include

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

s and wildfires. In February 2016, the government changed the official name for the town from "Queenstown" to "Komani".

Education

The following high schools serve the town and surrounding areas: * Hexagon High School * Queen's College *Get Ahead Project and College *Queenstown Girls' High School, established 1898 *Hoërskool Hangklip *Royal Academy High School *Olivet College Private High School *JJ Serfontein High School *KwaKomani Comprehensive *Maria Louw High School *Nkwanca High School *Luvuyo Lerumo High School *John Noah High School * W.B. Rubusana High School *Bulelani High School *Inyathi High School *Zanabantu High School *Kopano High School *Mbekweni High School *Sixishe Agricultural School Primary schools in the area include: *St. Theresa's Primary School *Hangklip Primary *Balmoral Girls' Primary School *Queens College Primary *Southbourne Primary *Thembelihle Primary School *Lukhanji Primary School *Christ The King *Louis Rex Primary School *Olivet College Private School *Mpendulo Primary School *Edlelweni Primary School *Nonesi Primary School *Van Coller Public Primary School *Royal Capital Education Centre Tertiary education institutions in Queenstown include *

Walter Sisulu University Walter Sisulu University (WSU) is a university of technology and science located in Mthatha, East London (Buffalo City), Butterworth and Komani (Queenstown) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, which came into existence on 1 July 2005 as a resul ...

*Ikhala Public FET College *

Boston City Campus and Business College Boston City Campus is a multi-city business college located in South Africa. Boston City Campus was founded by Ari Katz in 1991. In 1997, Boston City Campus opened a new division called Boston Business College and, after opening 11 colleges in G ...

*Lukhanji FET College

Religion

The city is the seat of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Queenstown The Roman Catholic Diocese of Queenstown () is a diocese located in the town of Queenstown in the ecclesiastical province of Cape Town in South Africa. History * 1928: Established as Mission “sui iuris” of Queenstown from the Apostolic ...

, centred at the Cathedral of Christ the King. It is also the seat of the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

's Diocese of Ukhahlamba, whose imposing Cathedral Church of St. Michael and All Angels stands adjacent to the town's public gardens. Churches of all faith denominations are to be found in and around the town.

Geography

The town lies on the

Komani River The Komani River, is a river part of the Great Kei River system in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is a short river originating north of Queenstown and joining up with the Klaas Smits River, just south of the same town. The Bongolo Dam, i ...

which forms part of the Great Kei system of rivers and has a plentiful water supply from the surrounding rugged mountains. The water is collected in the Bongolo Dam, set in the hills, used extensively for recreation and

watersports Water sports or aquatic sports are sports activities conducted on waterbodies and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

. Each year, around the beginning of June, the town holds an art exhibition with the emphasis on paintings and sculpture.

Layout

The layout of the town reflects its original objective as a defensive stronghold for the frontier area and has a most unusual design. There is a central hexagonal area where canon or rifle fire could be directed down six thoroughfares radiating from the centre. The canon sites have now been replaced with gardens and a central fountain. An abstract sculpture replaced the fountain as part of the town's 150th anniversary. The ''hexagon'' still exists, with the outer road surrounding it named ''Robinson Road'', which encircles it. Surrounding the Hexagon to the east and west lies more commercial and administrative facilities. Currently, formerly 'white suburbs' (

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...

, Kingsway,

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

, Bergsig, Blue rise, Balmoral, Madeira Park and a new suburb of Komani Park) surround the hexagon to the north, east and west, however, one of the city's great townships (and squatter camps) lies to the south. It is a collection of black and coloured townships named Mlungisi, Aloevale, a new township, Victoria Park has been built to the south-east of the city. East of the town lies the much larger Ezibeleni township, which although roughly the same surface area as the main town, has by far a larger population.

Climate

Queenstown has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

: BSk), that borders on a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...

(

: Cfb), and a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

: Cfa).

Geology

The Queenstown area is in the

Burgersdorp Formation The ''Cynognathus'' Assemblage Zone is a tetrapod biozone utilized in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. It is equivalent to the Burgersdorp Formation, the youngest lithostratigraphic formation in the Beaufort Group, which is part of the fossili ...

of the

Tarkastad Tarkastad is a Karoo semi-urban settlement situated on the banks of Tarka River in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Tarkastad is on a plain to the north of the Winterberg mountain range on the R61 between Cradock and Komani and only thr ...

subgroup, in the upper

Beaufort Group The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably under ...

Triassic in age in the

karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

supergroup. The lithology is red mudstone 1 to 10 m rich layers and sub-ordinate 1 to 2 m rich sandstone layers deposited by meandering

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s in the

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

in an oxidising environment gradually filling the Karoo basin. The formation reaches a thickness of 600 m in the Komani (Queenstown) and

Lady Frere Lady Frere (officially Cacadu) is a small town in Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The town was renamed to Cacadu in 2017 after changes to the country's colonial names. Cacadu, meaning "bulrush water ...

area. Numerous dolerite dykes and ring structures intruded the area creating localities for groundwater exploration.

Media

The town has two newspapers, ''The Representative'' and ''The Express''. It has a community radio station, Lukhanji FM. The Eastern Cape newspaper, ''

Daily Dispatch The ''Daily Dispatch'' is a South African newspaper published in East London in the province of Eastern Cape. The weekend edition is titled ''Daily Dispatch Weekend Edition''. Founded in 1872 as the ''East London Dispatch and Shipping and Mer ...

'', is widely read in the area.

Coats of arms

The Queenstown municipal council assumed a pseudo-heraldic coat of arms in October 1902.Western Cape Archives: Queenstown Municipal Minutes (29 October 1902). The shield was quartered and depicted the

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

, a landscape with Hangklip mountain in the background, a landscape with a mimosa tree in the foreground, and a portrait of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

. The crest was a demi-antelope, and the motto ''Unity is strength''.The arms were depicted on
cigarette card
issued in 1931. The council later assumed a new coat of arms. The new shield displayed a golden royal coronet on a red background. The crest was the same as before, but the motto was translated into Latin as ''Ex unitate vires''.The arms are illustrated (in black and white) in the ''Official South African Municipal Yearbook'' (1983).

Notable people

Queenstown has produced 2 Olympians and a plethora of musicians, sportsmen(national and international) and more. Some notable names hailing from the town are: *

Linky Boshoff Delina Ann Boshoff-Mortlock, commonly known as Linky Boshoff (born 12 November 1956), is a South African former professional tennis player. She won the 1976 US Open women's doubles title with her partner Ilana Kloss. Tennis career In 1973 Bos ...

Lionel Cronje Lionel may refer to: Name *Lionel (given name) Places *Lionel, Lewis, a village in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland *Lionel Town, Jamaica, a settlement Brands and enterprises *Lionel, LLC, an American designer and importer of toy trains and model ra ...

Daryll Cullinan Daryll John Cullinan (born 4 March 1967) is a former South African first-class cricketer who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals for South Africa as a specialist batsman. He was regarded as the most gifted batsman of his generation a ...

Carlo Del Fava Carlo Antonio Del Fava (born 1 July 1981) is a former rugby union player. His preferred position was Lock. After hanging his boots up he then decided to take up coaching. Born in South Africa, he played for Italy internationally. Rugby career D ...

* Allan Dell * S'bura Sithole * Glen Dell *

Mongezi Feza Mongezi Feza (11 May 1945 – 14 December 1975) was a South African jazz trumpeter and flautist. Biography Feza was born in Queenstown, Cape Province, Union of South Africa, into a family of musicians, His elder brother, Sandi Feza, who ...

* Ian Greig *

Tony Greig Anthony William Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was a South African-born cricketer and commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall () all-rounder who bowled both ...

Justin Kemp Justin Miles Kemp (born 2 October 1977) is a South African former international cricketer who played all formats of the game for South Africa. Kemp is the 3rd generation cricketer to play first class cricket, his grandfather John Miles Kemp pl ...

* Robbi Kempson *

Rayne Kruger Charles Rayne Kruger (29 January 1922 – 21 December 2002) was a South African author and property developer. Charles Rayne Kruger was born on 29 January 1922 in Queenstown, in the eastern Cape Province, the son of an unmarried 17-year-old d ...

(1922–2002) — author * Kaya Malotana *

Ken McEwan Kenneth Scott McEwan (born 16 July 1952 at Bedford, Eastern Cape, Bedford, South Africa), is a South African-Scottish retired cricketer and businessman who played principally for Eastern Province cricket team, Eastern Province and Essex County Cr ...

*Pat Matshikiza *

Todd Matshikiza Todd Tozama Matshikiza OMSS (7 March 1921 – 4 March 1968) was a South African jazz pianist, composer and journalist. As a journalist, he was a contributor to the innovative South African magazine ''Drum,'' in which he wrote in a unique style ...

* Stompie Mavi *

Lwazi Mvovo Lwazi Ncedo Mvovo (born 3 June 1986) is a retired South African professional rugby union player. He played for the Springboks, the in Super Rugby and in the Currie Cup as well as the in the Rugby Challenge.Don Pinnock *

Olive Schreiner Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel '' The Story of an African Farm'' (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It dea ...

Margaret Singana Margaret Singana (193822 April 2000), born Margaret M'cingana, was a South African musician. She is perhaps best known for her Xhosa song "Hamba Bhekile". An English-language version of the song, "We Are Growing", was used as soundtrack to the So ...

*Minah Soga *

Jomo Sono Ephraim Matsilele Sono OIS (born Madoda Walletjies Mkulwana, 17 July 1955), better known as Jomo Sono, is a South African football club owner, coach and former professional footballer. He has been variously nicknamed the "Black Prince of Sout ...

* Stratford Edward St Leger *

Marius Corbett Marius Corbett (born 26 September 1975 in Potchefstroom) is a South African javelin thrower. He won a gold medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics, improving his personal best by 4.50 m during the contest. The following year he ...

* Yaw Penxe * Simphiwe Matanzima *

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

* Roelof Smit * John Frost * Rabz Maxwane *

Pat Spence Patrick Spence (11 February 1898 – 22 November 1983) was a South African tennis player. He was born in Queenstown, South Africa. He competed mainly in Great Britain and found his form in hard court tournaments. He notably won the mixed double ...

* Rocco Jansen * Rex Witte *

Isaac Bangani Tabata Isaac Bangani Tabata OLG (1909-1990), also known as "I.B" or "Tabby", was a South African political activist, author and orator. A Marxist in the Trotskyist tradition, he was central to the Non-European Unity Movement from its inception in 1 ...

* Andisa Ntsila *

Elaine Bellew-Bryan, Baroness Bellew Elaine Carlisle Bellew-Bryan, Baroness Bellew (1885 – 7 March 1973), served in the First World War as a nurse and was one of the first women to be a member of the corporation in Kilkenny, from 1955 until 1973. Early life Elaine Carlisle Leac ...

* David Roos *

Dave Callaghan David John Callaghan (born 1 February 1965) is a former South African international cricketer. Despite there being a distance of eight years between his first and last One Day International, Callaghan played 29 times for South Africa. He was bor ...

* Delarey du Preez * Ken Austin (cricketer) * Harry Schmidt (pentathlete) *

George Patching George Herbert Patching (15 September 1886 – 31 March 1944) was a South African sprinter who finished 4th in the 100 metres at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Career Patching won the British AAA Championships title in the 100 yards event at the ...

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality 1853 establishments in the Cape Colony Populated places established in 1853