Dimbaza

Dimbaza
—  Town  —
Dimbaza Location in the Eastern Cape
Dimbaza
Coordinates: 32°50′7″S 27°12′57″E
Country	South Africa
Province	Eastern Cape
Municipality	Buffalo City
Area
• Total	10.24 km2 (3.95 sq mi)
Elevation	580 m (1,900 ft)
Population (2001)
• Total	23,424
• Density	2,288/km2 (5,930/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2001)
• Black African	99.9%
• Coloured	0.1%
First languages (2001)
• Xhosa	98.4%
• Other	1.6%
Time zone	SAST (UTC+2)
Postal code	5671
Area code(s)	040

Dimbaza is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, located in the Buffalo City Local Municipality, 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of King William's Town on the R63 road. As of 2001, it had a population of 23,424.

It was created during the mid- and late 1960s in the former Ciskei homeland to house Black people who had been removed from "white" areas for living there "illegally".^{[citation needed]} The concrete houses consisted of two or three rooms; sanitation facilities were non-existent. The lucky individuals could obtain employment in King Williams Town, paying roughly a quarter of their gross income on transportation.^{[citation needed]}

In keeping with then standard South African government policy, infrastructure development was financed by the beer halls.^{[citation needed]}

Between the abject poverty, and active negligence by the South African government, the town became a symbol of apartheid, and the subject of the 1975 documentary Last Grave at Dimbaza.

The town's original name was changed, due to the inability of the Special Branch to pronounce it correctly.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Pursuit magazine: April/May 2005
• Last Grave at Dimbaza