Pearston is a small town in the eastern Karoo, in the 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 ...

. It lies between

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the ...

and

Somerset East Somerset East ( af, Somerset-Oos) is a town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825. The Blue Crane Route follows the national road R63 from Pearston, via S ...

at the foot of the Coetzeesberge, about north of Port Elizabeth. It falls within the

Blue Crane Route Local Municipality Blue Crane Route Local Municipality ( af, Bloukraanroete Plaaslike Munisipaliteit) is an administrative area in the Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The municipality is named after the South African national bird, th ...

and has a population of approximately 4,500 people.

History

In 1850 John Pears, the minister of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

in the town of Somerset (now

) began holding services in the open under a large pear tree on the farm Rustenburg, then the property of Mr Casparus Jacobus Lötter, on the bank of the Voël River. In 1858 the church announced its intention to establish a village named Pearston on that location. A portion of the farm was purchased and lots sold, and the village was officially founded on 21 September 1859. It became a town with municipal government on 3 April 1894.

Government

Pearston falls within the

, which has its seat at

, and forms part of the larger Cacadu District Municipality. It is located in the fourth ward of the municipality, which is represented by Councillor Mncedi Mali of the

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 ...

Geography

Pearston is located about north of Port Elizabeth, on the banks of the Voël River. It is situated at an altitude of on the Camdeboo plain. The Coetzeesberge, a spur of the

Sneeuberge The Sneeuberge or Sneeuberg mountain range was historically known as “Sneeuwbergen”, meaning ‘snow mountains’ in Cape Dutch, and refers to a significant portion of Southern Africa's Great Escarpment in the Cradock, Murraysburg, Richmo ...

(a mountain), lie to the north, and the Groot-Bruintjieshoogte lie to the east. Pearston is the meeting point of two regional roads: the R63 from

and

Cookhouse A cookhouse is a small building where cooking takes place. Often found at remote work camps, they complemented the bunkhouse and were usually found on ranches that employed cowboys, or loggers in a logging camp. Prior to the 20th century, cookh ...

, and the R337 from

Jansenville Jansenville is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Town on the Sundays River, 87 km south of Graaff-Reinet. Laid out on the farm Vergenoegd in 1854, it was proclaimed in 1855 and bec ...

to Cradock.

Demography

According to the 2011 Census 3,435 people live in Pearston proper, and a further 1,081 live in the adjacent

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

of Khayanisho, giving the urban area a total population of 4,516. 56.9% of the people described themselves as " Coloured", 39.3% as "

Black African Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...

", 3.5% as "

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

" and 0.3% as "

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

or Asian". 64.2% of the people spoke

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

as their first language, while 35.4% spoke

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

and 0.4% spoke

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

References

{{Cacadu District Municipality Populated places in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality Populated places established in 1859 1859 establishments in South Africa