The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

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 ...

. It was created in 1994 when the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope (), commonly referred to as the Cape Province () and colloquially as The Cape (), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa. It encompassed the old Cape Co ...

was split up. Its capital is

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a large wildlife reserve and conservation biology, conservation area in southern Africa. The park straddles the border between South Africa and Botswana and comprises two adjoining national parks: * Kalahari Gems ...

and an international park shared with

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. It also includes the

Augrabies Falls The Augrabies Falls is a waterfall on the Orange River, the largest river in South Africa. Since 1966 the waterfall, set in a desolate and rugged milieu, is enclosed by the Augrabies Falls National Park. The falls are around in height. Some so ...

and the diamond mining regions in Kimberley and Alexander Bay. The

Namaqualand Namaqualand ( Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River int ...

region in the west is famous for its Namaqualand daisies. The southern towns of De Aar and Colesberg found within the Great Karoo are major transport nodes between

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and

Gqeberha Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially 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 Municipa ...

. Kuruman can be found in the north-east and is known as a mission station. It is also well known for its artesian spring and Eye of Kuruman. The

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch language, Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibi ...

flows through the province, forming the borders with the Free State in the southeast and with

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

to the northwest. The river is also used to irrigate the many vineyards in the arid region near

Upington Upington () is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of olive wood trees i ...

. Native speakers of

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

comprise a higher percentage of the population in the Northern Cape than in any other province. The Northern Cape's four official languages are Afrikaans,

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu languages, Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Tswanaland, ...

, Xhosa, and English. Minorities speak the other official languages of South Africa and a few people speak indigenous

languages Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...

such as Nama and Khwe. The provincial motto, ''Sa ǁa ǃaĩsi 'uĩsi'' ("We go to a better life"), is in the Nǀu language of the Nǁnǂe (ǂKhomani) people. It was given in 1997 by one of the language's last speakers, Ms. Elsie Vaalbooi of Rietfontein, who has since died. It was South Africa's first officially registered motto in a Khoisan language. Subsequently, South Africa's

national motto This article lists state and national mottos for the world's nations. The mottos for some states lacking general international recognition, extinct states, non-sovereign nations, regions, and territories are listed, but their names are not bold ...

, ''ǃKe e ǀxarra ǁke'', was derived from the extinct

ǀXam language ǀXam (pronounced , in English as ) is an extinct language (or possibly cluster of languages) from South Africa formerly spoken by the ǀXam-ka ǃʼē people. It is part of the Tuu languages, ǃUi branch of the Tuu languages and closely relate ...

History

The Northern Cape was one of three provinces made out of the

in 1994, the others being

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

to the south and

Eastern Cape 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 ...

to the southeast. Politically, it had been dominated since 1994 by the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC). Ethnic issues are important in the politics of the Northern Cape. For example, it is the site of the

Orania Orania () is a Volkstaat, white separatistSources for "white separatist": * * * Additional sources for "whites-only": * * * South Africa, South African town founded by Afrikaners. It is located along the Orange River in the Karoo region o ...

settlement, whose leaders have called for a

Volkstaat A Volkstaat (, ), also called a Boerestaat, is a proposed white ethnostate, White homeland for Afrikaners within the borders of South Africa, most commonly proposed as a Afrikaner nationalism, fully independent Boer/Afrikaner nation. The propos ...

for the

Afrikaner people Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...

in the province. The Northern Cape is also the home of over 1,000 San who emigrated from

following the independence of the country; they had served as trackers and scouts for the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

during the

South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...

, and feared reprisals from their former foes. They were awarded a settlement in Platfontein in 1999 by the Mandela government. The precolonial history of the Northern Cape is reflected in a rich, mainly Stone Age,

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

. Cave sites include

Wonderwerk Cave Wonderwerk Cave is an archaeological site, formed originally as an ancient solution cavity in dolomite rocks of the Kuruman Hills, situated between Danielskuil and Kuruman in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is a National Herita ...

near Kuruman, which has a uniquely long sequence stretching from the turn of the twentieth century at the surface to more than 1 million (and possibly nearly 2 million) years in its basal layer (where

stone tools Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a c ...

, occurring in very low density, may be

Oldowan The Oldowan (or Mode I) was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry during the early Lower Paleolithic spanning the late Pliocene and the first half of the Early Pleistocene. These early tools were simple, usually made by chipping one ...

). Many sites across the province, mostly in open air locales or in sediments alongside rivers or pans, document Earlier, Middle and Later Stone Age habitation. From Later Stone Age times, mainly, there is a wealth of

rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

sites – most of which are in the form of rock engravings such as at Wildebeest Kuil and many sites in the area known as ǀXam -ka !kau, 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 ...

. They occur on hilltops, slopes, rock outcrops and occasionally (as in the case of Driekops Eiland near Kimberley), in a river bed. In the north eastern part of the province there are sites attributable to the Iron Age such as

Dithakong Dithakong is a place east of Kuruman in the Northern Cape, South Africa, which had been a major destination for several of the earliest nineteenth century expeditions from the Cape to the interior of the subcontinent. In colonial literature, its ...

. Environmental factors have meant that the spread of Iron Age farming westwards (from the 17th century – but dating from the early first millennium AD in the eastern part of South Africa) was constrained mainly to the area east of the Langeberg Mountains, but with evidence of influence as far as the Upington area in the eighteenth century. From that period the archaeological record also reflects the development of a complex colonial frontier when precolonial social formations were considerably disrupted and there is an increasing 'fabric heavy' imprint of built structures, ash-heaps, and so on. The copper mines of

and the diamond rush to the Kimberley area resulted in industrial archaeological landscapes in those areas which herald the modern era in South African history.

Geography

The Northern Cape is South Africa's largest province, and distances between towns are enormous due to its sparse population. Its size is just shy of the size of the American state of

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

and slightly larger than that of Germany. The province is dominated by the

Basin and consists mostly of sedimentary rocks and some

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

intrusions. The south and south-east of the province is high-lying, , in the Roggeveld and Nuweveld districts. The west coast is dominated by the

region, famous for its spring flowers. This area is hilly to mountainous and consists of granites and

metamorphic rocks Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, caus ...

. The central areas are generally flat with interspersed salt pans.

Kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

intrusions punctuate the Karoo rocks, giving the province its most precious natural resource,

diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

. The north is primarily

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...

Desert, characterised by parallel red sand dunes and acacia tree dry savanna. Northern Cape has a shoreline in the west on the South Atlantic Ocean. It borders the following areas of Namibia and Botswana: * ǁKaras Region, Namibia – Northwest * Hardap Region, Namibia – Far northwest * Kgalagadi District, Botswana – North Domestically, it borders the following provinces: * North West – Northeast * Free State – East *

– Southeast *

– South and southwest

Rivers

The major river system is the Orange (or Gariep) River Basin, draining the interior of South Africa westwards into the Atlantic Ocean. (The political philosopher Neville Alexander has used the idea of the 'Garieb' as a metaphor for nationhood in South Africa, a flowing together, in preference to the rainbow metaphor where the diverse colours remain distinct). The principal tributary of the Orange is the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Oce ...

, which flows through part of the Northern Cape from the vicinity of Warrenton. The Vaal, in turn, has tributaries within the province: the

Harts River The Harts River () is a northern tributary of the Vaal River, which in turn is the largest tributary of the Orange River (also known as the Gariep River, the largest river in South Africa). Its source is in the North West Province, but the greate ...

and the Riet River, which has its own major tributary, the Modder River. Above the Orange-Vaal confluence, the Seekoei River drains part of the northeastern Karoo into the Orange River above the Vanderkloof Dam. Next downstream from the Orange-Vaal confluence is the Brak River, which flows nonperennially from the south and is in turn fed by the Ongers River, rising in the vicinities of

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

and Richmond respectively. Along the Orange River near the town of Kakamas, the Hartebeest River drains the central

. Above Kenhardt the Hartebeest is known as the Sak River, which has its source on the northern side of the escarpment, southeast of Williston. Further downstream from Kakamas, below the

, and seldom actually flowing into the Orange River, is the

Molopo River The Molopo River () is one of the main rivers in Southern Africa. It has a length of approximately 960 kilometres and a catchment area of 367,201 km2 with Botswana, Namibia and South Africa sharing roughly about a third of the basin each. C ...

, which comes down from the

in the north. With its tributary, the

Nossob River The Nossob River (also Nosob or Nossop; ''ǂnuse ǃab'', Khoikhoi for black river) is a dry river bed in eastern Namibia and the Kalahari region of South Africa and Botswana. It covers a distance of 740 km and last flooded in 1989. The riv ...

, it defines part of the international boundary between South Africa and

. Further tributaries of the

include the Kuruman River, fed by the Moshaweng River and Kgokgole River, and the Matlhwaring River. Flowing west into the Atlantic, in

, is the Buffels River and, further south, the Groen River.

Climate

Mostly arid to semiarid, few areas in the province receive more than of rainfall per annum and the average annual rainfall over the province is . Rainfall generally increases from west to east from a minimum average of to a maximum of per year. The west experiences most rainfall in winter, while the east receives most of its moisture from late summer thunderstorms. Many areas experience extreme heat, with the hottest temperatures in South Africa measured along the Namibian border. Summers maximums are generally or higher, sometimes higher than . Winters are usually frosty and clear, with southern areas sometimes becoming bitterly cold, such as

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

, which often receives snow and temperatures occasionally drop below the mark. *

averages: January maximum: (min: ), June maximum: (min: ), annual precipitation: *

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

averages: January maximum: (min: ), July maximum: (min: ), annual precipitation: *

averages: January maximum: (min: ), July maximum: (min: ), annual precipitation:

Demographics

As of the 2022 census, the Northern Cape had a population of 1,355,629, an increase of 18.3% from the prior census in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. It is least populous and by a considerable margin the least densely populated of South Africa's nine provinces. The median age is 27, an increase of 2 years from 2011.

Race/Ethnicity

In the 2022 census, 50.1% of the population described themselves as

Black African Black is a racial 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 dark skin and ofte ...

, 41.6% as

Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...

, 7.3% as

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

and 0.8% as Indian/Asian. Coloureds form a higher proportion of the population in the Northern Cape than in any other province except for the

Languages

In the 2022 census, 54.6% of the population reported their

first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...

, 35.7% as

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, is a Bantu language indigenous to Southern Africa and spoken by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalaga ...

, 4.5% as Xhosa, and 2.4% as English. The Northern Cape is the only province in which native Afrikaans-speakers form a majority of the population. It is also the province with the second-highest proportion of Setswana speakers, after North West province.

Religion

The population of the Northern Cape is overwhelmingly

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. As of the 2022 census, 97.8% of the population described themselves as

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, the highest proportion among South Africa's provinces. Among other religions, 0.8% of the population described themselves as

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, and 0.7% of the population stated that they practiced Traditional African religions. Only 0.3% of the population described themselves as being atheist, agnostic, or having no religious affiliation.

Government and Politics

Government

The Northern Cape provincial government is based in

, the provincial capital. The Northern Cape Division of the

High Court of South Africa The High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law in South Africa. It is divided into nine provinces of South Africa, provincial divisions, some of which sit in more than one location. Each High Court division has general jurisdiction ov ...

also sits in Kimberley. Like South Africa's other provinces, the Northern Cape has a parliamentary system of government, with the provincial premier elected by the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature. The premier then selects the members of the provincial Executive Council (cabinet). The current premier is Zamani Saul of the

(ANC), who has held the position since 2019. The provincial legislature is elected every five years by a system of

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

. In the most recent provincial election, held in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, the ANC won a plurality of the vote but failed to win an overall majority of seats. After the election, the ANC declined to form a formal coalition, but the ANC's Zamani Saul was reelected as premier with support from the Patriotic Alliance and

Freedom Front Plus The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus or FF+; , ''VF Plus'') is a right-wing political party in South Africa that was formed (as the Freedom Front) in 1994. It is led by Corné Mulder. Since 2024, it is a part of the current South African Third Cabin ...

. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is the second largest party in the province and forms the

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

. The results of the most recent provincial election in 2024 are as follows:

Political History

The ANC consistently has been the largest party in the Northern Cape since the end of Apartheid, although its position has been less dominant than it traditionally has been in most other provinces. In the first democratic provincial elections in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, the ANC emerged as the largest party but failed to win an overall majority of seats. In order to form a majority in the provincial legislature, the ANC reached an agreement with the Democratic Party (DP), which voted for the ANC's Manne Dipico as premier in exchange for the election of the DP's sole MLP, Ethne Papenfus, as speaker of the legislature. The National Party formed the official opposition. In the 1999 provincial election, the ANC substantially increased its vote share and won an overall majority in the provincial legislature. Thereafter the ANC would continue to maintain a majority in the legislature until

. After the 2004 election, the ANC's Dipuo Peters replaced Dipico as Premier, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) replaced the New National Party as the official opposition. Following the 2009 election, which was again won the by ANC, the ANC's Hazel Jenkins became the new Premier, while the Congress of the People (COPE), a new splinter party from the ANC, had a strong showing and replaced the DA as the official opposition. Jenkins was later replaced as Premier by Sylvia Lucas in 2013. The 2014 election saw the ANC returned to power once again with an increased mandate, while DA once again became the official opposition, after the collapse of COPE. The newly formed

Economic Freedom Fighters The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African communist and black nationalist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema, and his allies, on 26 July 20 ...

(EFF) also entered the legislature for the first time. Sylvia Lucas was re-elected to her first full term as premier. In the 2019 election, the Northern Cape was considered competitive, with the DA hoping to win the province. In the end, the ANC returned as the majority party, albeit with a reduced majority. The DA was once again the official opposition with an increased seat total. The EFF made gains, while the

(FF+) won a seat in the legislature for the first time since 2004. Zamani Saul replaced Lucas as premier after the election.

Municipalities

The Northern Cape Province is divided into five district municipalities. The district municipalities are in turn divided into 27 local municipalities:

District municipalities

* Frances Baard District ** Sol Plaatje ** Dikgatlong ** Magareng ** Phokwane * John Taolo Gaetsewe District ** Ga-Segonyana ** Gamagara ** Joe Morolong * Namakwa District ** Richtersveld ** Nama Khoi ** Kamiesberg ** Hantam ** Karoo Hoogland ** Khâi-Ma * Pixley ka Seme District **

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

** Umsobomvu ** Emthanjeni ** Kareeberg ** Renosterberg ** Thembelihle ** Siyathemba ** Siyancuma * ZF Mgcawu District (formerly Siyanda) ** Kai ǃGarib ** Dawid Kruiper ** ǃKheis ** Tsantsabane ** Kgatelopele

Cities and towns

Springbok from the old cemetery JAN 2007

Population 50,000+ *

Population 10,000+ Population < 10,000

Economy

As reported by the Northern Cape Provincial Government, unemployment still remains a big issue in the province. Unemployment was reported to be at 24.9% during Q4, 2013. Unemployment also declined from 119,000 in Q4, 2012 to 109,000 in Q4, 2013.http://economic.ncape.gov.za/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=3&Itemid=365 The Northern Cape is also home to the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which is located 75 km North-West of Carnarvon. The economy of the Northern Cape relies heavily on two sectors, mining and agriculture, which employ 57% (Tertiary Sector) of all employees in the province. Most famous for the diamond mines around

, it also has mining activities for Manganese and iron ore. The Northern Cape also has a substantial agricultural area around the

, including most of South Africa's sultana vineyards. Some Wine of Origin areas have been demarcated. The Orange River also attracts visitors who enjoy rafting tours around

Vioolsdrif Vioolsdrif is a village on the Orange River in the north-western Namaqualand area of South Africa. Origin of name The name in Afrikaans means 'the ford (shallow river crossing) of the violin'. It is reportedly named after Jan Viool ("John Vio ...

. Extensive sheep raising is the basis of the economy in the southern

areas of the province.

References

External links

Northern Cape TourismNC Provincial Government
{{coord, 30, S, 22, E, region:ZA_type:adm1st_dim:980km, display=title Provinces of South Africa States and territories established in 1994 1994 establishments in South Africa Karoo