Mthatha

Province

Mthatha (formerly Umtata ) is a town in the municipality of King Sabata Dalindyebo, district OR Tambo, Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. 2011, it had 96 114 inhabitants. Umtata was the capital of the former Transkei homelands. The settlement of the Thembu, a tribe of the Xhosa people, was created in 1879 by the Anglican Bishop Richard Calverley as a city. Calverley was simultaneously Umtatas first chief constable.

To strengthen the independence of the Transkei South Africa financed the construction of a university in Umtata. Now here is a campus of the Walter Sisulu University.

The former South African President Nelson Mandela grew up in Qunu, about 20 kilometers south-west of Mthatha on. Therefore, is also found in this region, the Nelson Mandela National Museum, which was opened on 11 February 2000, ten years after his release. The museum is spread over Qunu, the Bunga - the former seat of the former Transkei Parliament in Owen Street Mthatha - and Mandela's birthplace Mvezo.

Sons and daughters of the town

OR Tambo District Municipality Bantustan Thembu people
585450
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