OR Tambo District
The Oliver Tambo District covers most of the former Tanskei. Umtata is the main centre, and the Oliver Tambo covers most of the Wild Coast and Pondoland. The district has a sub-tropical coastal belt, especially from Port St. Johns northwards. It has some game reserves that have indigenous forests. The hills beyond the coast rise to high levels of up to 1,500 meters beyond Umtata. The district has many rivers and is well-watered, with an average of 700mm of rainfall per year. Pondoland, being nearly the most fertile areas in South Africa, has warm temperatures and good soils with frost-free conditions. Some of the other major towns in the district are Mqanduli, Port St. Johns, Qumbu, Lusikisiki and Bizana.
Oliver Tambo has the second highest population of all the districts with more than 1,504,411 inhabitants. And for a mostly rural district it also has a high population density of 90 people per square kilometer. The Oliver Tambo District has an area of 15,535 square kilometers. There are very few coloured and white inhabitants and the population is 99% Africans. The first language is Xhosa but Zulu is also used in some areas of the district.
The Oliver Tambo District has a fairly small formal economy compared to the rest of the province, but the Transkei has a major subsistence and informal economy that isn’t measured by statistics. In the district agriculture is the major private sector activity and contributes 8% of formal employment. The chief formal agriculture enterprise is forestry, and the large forests to the north and west of Umtata are mainly leased by the private sector. There are also a number of small commercial farmers in the area and they concentrate on mixed farming of livestock and crops of mostly maize. In the Oliver Tambo some farmers have invested in irrigation, with the most popular crops being cabbage and potatoes. Manufacturing plays a small role as a small sector employing 6% of the districts population. The largest manufacturing sectors are food processing, furniture and wood products and they are all based in Umtata. The tourism in Oliver Tambo is centered on the breath taking Wild Coast, which is a host to many resorts and nature reserves. Port St. Johns is developing as a tourism destination The Pondoland coast is one of the most spectacular eco-tourism destinations in South Africa and is going to be host to an expanded nature and marine reserve. The Nelson Mandela Museum, in Umatata and Qunu, houses the history of the struggle against apartheid and the life of Nelson Mandela. The government is the chief employer in the economy and they employ thousands of people in the formal and informal sectors.
