Geography and climate

The Eastern Cape province

The Eastern Cape, lying on the southeastern South African coast, is a region of great natural beauty, particularly the rugged cliffs, rough seas and dense green bush of the stretch known as the Wild Coast.

The province's diverse climates and landscapes range from the dry and desolate Great Karoo to the lush forests of the Wild Coast and the Keiskamma Valley, the fertile Langkloof, renowned for its rich apple harvests, and the mountainous southern Drakensberg region around the town of Elliot.

The Eastern Cape's main feature is its spectacular coastline, lapped by the temperate Indian Ocean. With long stretches of unspoilt sandy beaches, rocky coves, secluded lagoons and towering cliffs, the coast is the province's main tourist attraction.

A multi-media promotion of the Eastern Cape - home of Nelson Mandela, also known as Madiba.
Lying in Algoa Bay is Port Elizabeth, the largest city and an important harbour. Other major towns include Bisho, the capital; Uitenhage, which has important motor vehicle manufacturing and related industries; King William's Town, rich in early settler and military history; Grahamstown, also known as the City of Saints because of its more than 40 churches; as well as Mthatha, Graaff-Reinet, Cradock, Stutterheim, Aliwal North, and Port St Johns, the largest town on the Wild Coast.

The land and its people
At 168 966 square kilometres, the Eastern Cape is roughly the size of Uruguay. It's the country's second-largest province after the Northern Cape, taking up 13.9% of South Africa's land area and with a mid-2006 population of 6.9-million people.

The majority of the people speak isiXhosa, followed by Afrikaans and English.

In the Eastern Cape, various floral habitats meet. The long curve of coastline, large area and the considerable east-west and north-south distances it covers give the province extremely varied vegetation.

Along the coast, the northern tropical forests intermingle with the more temperate woods of the south, creating an interesting forest habitat of various species endemic to this region. Ancient forests are found around Keiskammahoek, Dwesa, Port St Johns and Bathurst, dune forests near Alexandria, and mangroves along the Wild Coast.

A forest in the Hogsback region of the Western Cape (Image: Eastern Cape Tourism Board)

Rolling grasslands dominate the eastern interior of the province, while the western central plateau is savanna bushveld. The northern inland is home to the aromatic, succulent-rich Karoo habitat.

Industry
The metropolitan economies of Port Elizabeth and East London are based primarily on manufacturing, the most important being automotive manufacturing. The province is the hub of South Africa's motor industry.

Several of the world's biggest vehicle manufacturers have plants in the Eastern Cape, including Volkswagen, Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler.

South Africa's automotive industry

With two harbours and three airports offering direct flights to the main centres, and an excellent road and rail infrastructure, the province has been earmarked as a key area for growth and economic development.

Environmentally friendly projects include the Fish River Spatial Development Initiative, the Wild Coast SDI, and two industrial development zones, the West Bank in East London and, near Port Elizabeth, Coega - the largest infrastructure development in post-apartheid South Africa. Plans for the development of the area as an export-orientated zone include the construction of the deepwater Port of Ngqura.

Coega 'taking off in a big way'

Other important sectors include finance, real estate, business services, wholesale and retail trade, and hotels and restaurants.

Investing in the Eastern Cape

Agriculture
There is much fertile land in the Eastern Cape, and agriculture is important. The fertile Langkloof Valley in the southwest has enormous deciduous fruit orchards, while sheep farming predominates in the Karoo.

The Alexandria-Grahamstown area produces pineapples, chicory and dairy products, while coffee and tea are cultivated at Magwa. People in the former Transkei region are dependent on cattle, maize and sorghum-farming. An olive nursery has been developed in collaboration with the University of Fort Hare to form a nucleus of olive production in the Eastern Cape.

There is excellent potential for forestry - the coastal areas receive good summer rainfall and have a moderate climate, becoming more subtropical to the north-west. The Tsitsikamma National Park on the southern border is home to dense indigenous forest.

The basis of the province's fishing industry is squid, some recreational and commercial fishing for line fish, the collection of marine resources, and access to line-catches of hake.