en Sterkspruit

Sterkspruit
Sterkspruit
	Bridge over the Orange River near Sterkspruit
	Sterkspruit Sterkspruit Sterkspruit
	Coordinates: 30°31′26″S 27°22′12″E / 30.524°S 27.370°E
Country	South Africa
Province	Eastern Cape
District	Joe Gqabi
Municipality	Senqu
Government
• Councillor	Chief Magadla
Area
• Total	4.02 km2 (1.55 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	1,893
• Density	470/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	96.2%
• Coloured	0.9%
• Indian/Asian	2.1%
• White	0.4%
• Other	0.4%
First languages (2011)
• Xhosa	73.5%
• Sotho	14.2%
• English	4.3%
• Afrikaans	1.0%
• Other	7.0%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)	9762
PO box	9762
Area code	051

Sterkspruit is a town in the Senqu Local Municipality in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

The town is located about 45 km south-east of Zastron, 80 km north-east of Aliwal North, and 24 km from the Lesotho border.^[2] It takes its name from the Sterkspruit, the watercourse on which it is situated. The name is Afrikaans and means ‘strong stream’.^[3]

Health

The town houses the Empilisweni District Hospital, a public government-funded and managed district hospital. It is a level 1 hospital with 93 usable beds. As it is situated close to Lesotho and Free State borders, it also renders health services to cross-border citizens visiting Sterkspruit.

Water quality has been a problem, with 140 babies dying in 2008 after drinking contaminated water.^[4]

Protests

In 2013, the town was shut down for two weeks in protests led by the Sterkspruit Civic Association, with the goal of forming its own, separate, municipality.^[5]