Whittlesea is a semi-rural town situated on the
R67 road in the Hewu district, 37 km south of
Komani Komani may refer to:
* Official name of Queenstown, South Africa, Eastern Cape
* Komani River, a river in South Africa
* Lake Komani, a reservoir in Albania
** Komani Hydro Power Plant
* Norman Komani, Zimbabwean football player
See also
* Co ...
,
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 ...
. The town is made up of the
township
A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
s Ekuphumleni, Bhede, Ndlambe, Extension 4, Extension 5 and Sada. The town falls under the
Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality which is under the
Chris Hani District Municipality
The Chris Hani District Municipality () is a landlocked district municipality situated in the centre of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and is made up of eight local municipalities. Most of the communities are in rural areas. The land ...
. Surrounding Whittlesea are 36 villages which make up the Hewu (meaning "flat land' in Xhosa) district.
History
Founded in 1849, Whittlesea was as a military outpost created to protect white settlers during the
Frontier War of 1850–1853. The town was named after
Whittlesea in
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...
, birthplace of
Sir Harry Smith
Lieutenant-General Sir Henry George Wakelyn Smith, 1st Baronet, GCB (28 June 1787 – 12 October 1860) was a notable English soldier and military commander in the British Army of the early 19th century. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, he is a ...
(1787-1860), Governor of the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...
from 1847 to 1852.
A British officer fortified five houses during the War of Mlanjeni (1850 to 1853), when the Xhosas besieged the settlement. One of these, which now forms part of the Post Office Complex, is still standing.
Between 1948 and 1994, at the height of the
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
regime in South Africa, Whittlesea belonged to the former Ciskei, a bantustan/homeland established in 1961 under the Promotion of Self-Government Act of 1959. Until 1994, there was no formal political organisation in Whittlesea. The Department of Internal Affairs facilitated decisions around land use, services and rates in the townships through township managers. After South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, Whittlesea became governed by a council.
Landmarks
*
Hewu Hospital (formerly operated by ''Lifecare'', but provincialized since 2010) is to be found only 4 km on the road to Ekuphumleni Township.
* Whittlesea Library. Located at the municipality offices, the library caters for the town and the surrounding villages.
*
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 ...
Whittlesea campus
* Whittlesea Police Station
* Department of Home Affairs
* Harrison Hope. Opened in 2009, the wine estate located on Harrison Farm outside of Whittlesea is the first wine estate in the Eastern Cape.
* Inkosi Wine is housed at the Shiloh Irrigation Scheme and was launched on 19 April 2017.
Economy
Whittlesea functions as a central town, providing services and shopping facilities to the surrounding villages. The inhabitants of the town rely on the neighbouring town of
Queenstown for their economic needs. Due to the failure of the factories built by the Taiwanese in Sada in the 1990s, the underutilisation of small business complexes, a lack of funding and a lack of natural resources, Whittlesea has become a source of migrant labour.
However, projects started by The South African National Roads Agency Ltd (SANRAL)
and Expanded Public Works Programmes
have brought hope to the area.
Demographics
The following statistics describing Whittlesea are from the
2011 census.
* Area:
* Population: 14756 :
* Households: 9,473:
Villages
Some of the villages surrounding Whittlesea include;
*Oxton village
*Haytor Clinic(Sibonile)
*Diphala
*Peter
*Nyana
* Lower Didimana
* Upper Didimana
* Kamastone
* Bulhoek (Ntabelanga, Qhwabhi, Stratweni)
* Romanslaagte
* Tsitsikama
* KuzaNgqokwe
* Phelandaba
* McBright
* Mcewula
* KwaSemi
* Ensaam
*
Thornhill
* EZola
* Lower Hukuwa
* Upper Hukuwa
* Ekuphumleni (Dongwe)
*
Sada
* Tambo
* Cimezile
* Ngcamnga
* Mtha
* KuNdlambe
*
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
*Nkwankwankwa
*Muswa
*
Mthwakazi
*Hekeni (Hackney)
*Zweledinga
*Yonda
*Dyamala
*eMabheleni
*
Mbekweni
Mbekweni is a township situated between Wellington and Paarl in the Western Cape province of South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces o ...
*Gallawater
*Long dry
*Ngojini
*Qawukeni
*Upper Lahlangubo
*eChibini
* Sihlabeni
*Zangqokhwe
*Lower Lahlangubo
External links
Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council
References
{{Authority control
Populated places in the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality