Ixopo

Province

Ixopo is a town in the municipality Ubuhlebezwe in South Africa and the municipal offices. It is 900 meters above sea level on the banks of the River Mkhomazi. 2011, it had 12,461 inhabitants. The nearest towns are Scottburgh (96 miles away) and Pietermaritzburg (86 miles away). The city was founded in 1978 as Stuartstown, named after J. Stuart, a prominent magistrate.

The present name Ixopo arose from the isiZulu word eXopo. This describes the sucking noise, which produce cows that are driven in the evening by the river, with their hooves in the mud.

The city through the book Cry the Beloved Country was known ( German title: "For they shall be comforted " ) of the writer Alan Stewart Paton.