Ixopo
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Ixopo Stuartstown |
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.JPG)
SAR Class NG G11 no. NG55 arriving at Ixopo station
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 Ixopo
Ixopo
Ixopo
Ixopo shown within KwaZulu-Natal
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| Coordinates: 30°09′26″S 30°03′53″E / 30.15722°S 30.06472°ECoordinates: 30°09′26″S 30°03′53″E / 30.15722°S 30.06472°E | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | KwaZulu-Natal |
| District | Harry Gwala |
| Municipality | Ubuhlebezwe |
| Area | |
| • Total | 10.85 km2 (4.19 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 12,461 |
| • Density | 1,100/km2 (3,000/sq mi) |
| Racial makeup (2011) | |
| • Black African | 90.6% |
| • Coloured | 5.6% |
| • Indian/Asian | 1.9% |
| • White | 1.4% |
| • Other | 0.5% |
| First languages (2011) | |
| • Zulu | 74.8% |
| • English | 10.6% |
| • Xhosa | 7.6% |
| • Sotho | 2.2% |
| • Other | 4.8% |
| Postal code (street) | 3276 |
| PO box | 3276 |
| Area code | 039 |
Ixopo is a town situated on a tributary of the Mkhomazi River in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and forms part of an important sugar farming, and forestry area.
Ixopo was formerly known as Stuartstown, after M Stuart, Resident Magistrate of the Ixopo district, who was killed at the Battle of Ingogo in 1881. Its name is derived from the Zulu onomatopoeic word, eXobo, describing the sound made as cattle squelch through mud. The 'x', in Zulu, is pronounced as a lateral click).
Ixopo is most famously described by Alan Paton in the opening lines of Cry, The Beloved Country: "There is a lovely road which runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."
The town houses two schools including a high school with a large proportion of boarding pupils who live in surrounding villages (such as Bulwer, Underberg, Creighton) which are too small to justify the erection and staffing of a high school.
In the 1990s, before South Africa became completely democratic, Ixopo was the centre of a number of armed clashes between two political parties, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party.
The Buddhist Retreat Centre, one of South Africa's major Buddhist centres is in Ixopo.
Until the mid-1980s, Ixopo was served by a railway station on the 610 mm (2 ft 0 in) narrow gauge Umzinto - Donnybrook narrow gauge railway.
In 2000 the former branch of the Umzinto - Donnybrook railway from Ixopo to Umzinkulu (Madonela) was reconstructed by PCNGR.
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