Sarah Baartman District Municipality (formerly Cacadu District Municipality) is situated in the western part of the

Eastern Cape province 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 19 ...

, covering an area of 58 242 square kilometres. The area of the district municipality includes seven local municipalities. The seat of Sarah Baartman is the city of

Gqeberha Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, S ...

, although Gqeberha is not itself in the district (it is in the

Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ( af, Nelson Mandelabaai Metropolitaanse Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Nelson Mandela Bay or ''uMasipala waseBhayi'') is one of eight metropolitan municipalities (also called Category A municipalities) in So ...

). The languages most spoken among the 388,201 people are Xhosa and

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 g ...

(2001 Census). The district code is DC10. The municipality is a multi-ethnic administration, formed by the ANC government through the merging of the predominantly

-speaking western part of the Eastern Cape, together with Xhosa areas near the Fish river, and the English district of Albany (with its own distinctive local culture, dating back to the

1820 settlers The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. Origins After ...

). The name Cacadu is regarded by the Xhosa as covering the entire area of the district municipality, but in fact it is taken from a river that runs entirely in

. Cacadu, meaning "bulrush water", is the Xhosa form of the

Khoekhoe Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...

name of the river. The Dutch name is a translation: Papenkuils (in modern Afrikaans a bulrush is called a ''papkuil''). The river rises in the Parsons Vlei and runs to the sea close to the Gqeberha industrial suburb of Deal Party. In 2015, Cacadu District was renamed for Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman (1789–1815), a

Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...

woman who was taken to London to perform at

freak show A freak show, also known as a creep show, is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with ...

s and after her death her remains were exhibited until 1974. The renaming is part of an effort to redress marginalisation of the Khoikhoi people.

Government

The Executive Mayor of Sarah Baartman District Municipality is Khunjuzwa Eunice Kekana, and the Municipal Manager is Ted Pillay.

Geography

The Sarah Baartman district covers an area of in the southwestern part of the Eastern Cape province. It extends to the

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 Ri ...

in the east and 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, Richm ...

in the north. The metropolitan area around

is excluded from the district, being in the

. The southwestern part of the district (west of Gqeberha) is marked by several ranges of mountains that run parallel to the sea, including the Baviaanskloof mountains, the

Kouga mountains The Kouga mountains are a mountain range on the border of the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces in South Africa, stretching in an east–west direction. They are part of the Cape Fold Belt, beginning just east of Uniondale and stretching fu ...

and the Tsitsikamma mountains. In the southeastern part (east of Port Elizabeth) is the Albany region around the city of

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana Loc ...

. The northern interior of the district is the southeastern end of the

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 ...

. To the west the district borders on the

Garden Route The Garden Route (Afrikaans: ''Tuinroete'') is a stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant an ...

and Central Karoo districts of the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

; to the north it borders on the Pixley ka Seme district of the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...

; and to the east it borders on the

Chris Hani Chris Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993), born Martin Thembisile Hani , was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierc ...

and Amathole districts of the Eastern Cape. Sarah Baartman district is divided into nine local municipalities, as below: After the municipal elections on 3 August 2016, the Camdeboo, Ikwezi and Baviaans municipalities were merged to form the new

Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality is a new local municipality that was established by merging the Camdeboo, Ikwezi and Baviaans local municipalities in the Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The decision to merge ...

, with its head offices in Graaff-Reinet. This merger resulted in there being seven local municipalities within the Sarah Baartman District.

Demographics

The following statistics are from the 2001 census.

Gender

Ethnic group

Age

Politics

Election results

Election results for Cacadu in the

South African general election, 2004 General elections were held in South Africa on Wednesday, 14 April 2004. The African National Congress (ANC) of President Thabo Mbeki, which came to power after the end of the apartheid system in 1994, was re-elected with an increased majority. ...

. * Population 18 and over: 252,570 5.06% of total population* Total votes: 161,399 1.58% of total population* Voting % estimate: 63.90% votes as a % of population 18 and over

References

External links

Sarah Baartman District Municipality Official Website
{{Municipalities of the Eastern Cape District municipalities of the Eastern Cape Sarah Baartman District Municipality Karoo