South Africa Programme: Location

Click on the map below to find out about the regions in which LCD works.

Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape Province was formed in 1994 and is the traditional home of the Xhosa people and the birthplace for many prominent South Africans, such as Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.

The Eastern Cape is the second largest province in South Africa and it remains one of the poorest. Subsistence agriculture is the predominant livelihood in most of the province; however there are two large industrial centres, Port Elizabeth and East London.

The population is 6,300,000, 15.5% of South Africa’s total population. The coastal climate is warm temperate to sub-tropical with the northern regions being much cooler.

LCD’s Phakama project (meaning ‘Stand Up!’ in Xhosa) works with 150 schools in the districts of Mount Fletcher, Qumbu and Libode. The project began in 2000 and aims to radically improve the quality of rural education, how districts work and support their schools and use the lessons learned to inform provincial change.

Northern Cape

The Northern Cape was founded in 1994 and is the largest province in South Africa, occupying 30% of total land area. Despite it being the largest of all nine provinces, it has a very small population due to the extremely hot climate. It borders touch four other provinces, the Atlantic Ocean, and the countries of Namibia and Botswana, making the province an ideal gateway to the West African markets.

The Orange River runs through the Northern Cape and provides the basis for a successful agriculture industry. The province is famous for its diamond mines. The Northern Cape is also known for its cattle, sheep, potato, maize, wheat, and peanut farming

Around half of the population is of mixed race. Blacks make up about one-third of the population, and whites constitute about one-tenth. Afrikaans is by far the most widely used language, spoken by about two-thirds of the population.

LCD works with 180 schools in the Francis Baard district of the Northern Cape. It is one of four districts within the Northern Cape Region and is largely typical in development terms of the country’s rural district.

Gauteng Province

Soshanguve is a poor township 25km north west of Pretoria, in Gauteng Province. Gauteng is a small, highly urbanised province, which generates 10% of the GDP for the entire African continent. Many languages are spoken but English is the most widely used. The province has a mild climate, with warm summers and frosty winters.

Soshanguve was established in 1974, for Sotho, Shangaan, Nguni and Venda people who were being resettled. The name of the township is made up of the first letters of each of the groups’ names. It is an extremely disadvantaged area with extensive squatter settlements around its periphery.

The township has 96 schools, all of which have participated in the Soshanguve School Development Project between 1996 and 2001.

Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal

Nongoma is 300 km north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province. The province comprises coastal areas, plains and mountainous areas. Temperatures range from 11°C to 28°C throughout the year. About 82% of the population is black, and during apartheid a large proportion were forced to live in Bantu homelands.

Nongoma was established in 1887 with the building of a British fort, and is a busy market town surrounded by the Ngome forest and serving a large area around it. It has around 200,000 inhabitants, with only 11% of the population in formal employment, and most families living off pensions received by grandparents.

LCD ran the Zisize project with 72 schools in Nongoma from 1993 to 2002.

Vuwani, Limpopo

Vuwani is a region in Limpopo province. Before 2003, Limpopo was known as Northern Province, and was previously part of the Transvaal. It is located in the very north of South Africa, and borders Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The population is made up of several ethnic groups, The Northern Sotho (57%), Tsonga speakers (23%), the Venda (12%) and Afrikaans speakers (2.5%).

There is wide climatic variation across the year, cold in winter and as hot as 45°C in summer in other places. Mining is an important industry in the region, with coal, gold, platinum and iron being extracted. It is also an ideal area for the cultivation of sub-tropical fruits such as oranges, mangoes, papaws and guavas.

Vuwani region is one of the economically poorest areas in the country, a legacy of years of underdevelopment and scarce natural resources. Many people are forced to travel to cities in the south to find work.

LCD ran the Limpopo School Empowerment Project in this area from 1997 to 2002.