Libode is a small town of 5000 inhabitants in the Eastern Cape province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. It is situated on the R61 road (future N2 Wild Coast Toll Route) from Port St Johns in the east 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. Mata ...

in the west and serves as the administrative seat of the Nyandeni Local Municipality, which is part of the OR Tambo District Municipality. As a small infrastructural hub for the surrounding rural area, Libode features a community college and a hospital, the St Barnabas Hospital.

History

Libode is situated in an area formerly known as

Pondoland Pondoland or Mpondoland ( Xhosa: ''EmaMpondweni''), is a natural region on the South African shores of the Indian Ocean. It is located in the coastal belt of the Eastern Cape province. Its territory is the former Mpondo Kingdom of the Mpondo peo ...

. Mpondoland was annexed to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

in 1894. In 1903 the Transkeian Territories General Council was established, and in 1911 the district of Libode was incorporated into the council. In 1935 some land in the area of Libode was annexed by the Government of the Union of South Africa and the then

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 Ba ...

government to develop the town of Libode and expand it. It was declared a Village Management area. Further land was dispossessed when the government implemented the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. This was the subject of a successful land claim in 2009. In 1940, some Catholic nuns from the Motherhouse St. Ursula in Brig, Switzerland were sent to Libode, which is currently the Ursuline group's main station in the region. Today they still run a multi-racial boarding-school. On 15 December 1998 the City of Umtata was struck by a violent hail and thunderstorm that developed two tornado funnels that wreaked havoc across the city and surrounding rural areas. The tornado left 18 people dead, at least 184 injured and damage to property estimated at many millions of Rands. ... President Mandela declared the Libode Magisterial district to be a disaster area in terms of the Fund Raising Act 1978.

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

opened Mngazi School in Libode in 2002.

Economy

Libode is part of one of the poorest areas of South Africa. Unemployment in 2008 was at 85%.

Tourism

Near Libode is the

Hluleka Nature Reserve The Hluleka Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa that is managed by Eastern Cape Parks, it is about 90 km to the south-east of Mthatha Mthatha , formerly Umtata, is the main city of the King Sabata Dalin ...

and Hluleka Beach (60 km away), as well as Presely Bay (68 km).Nyandeni Local Municipality
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References

{{OR Tambo District Municipality Populated places in the Nyandeni Local Municipality