Queenstown, officially Komani, is a town situated in the central region of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, along the N6 National Route, roughly halfway between Sterkstroom and Cathcart.
The town lies on the Komani River, which forms part of the Great Kei system of rivers and has a plentiful water supply from the surrounding rugged mountains. The water is collected in the Bongolo Dam, set in the hills, used extensively for recreation and watersports.
Komani is the main town and administrative centre/seat of both the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality and the Chris Hani District Municipality.
The town was established in 1853 and is currently the commercial, administrative, and educational centre of the surrounding farming district.
Talking about education, Komani is home to a campus of the Walter Sisulu University as well as other tertiary education institutions like Boston City Campus and Business College. Queens College Boys’ High School.
In February 2016, the government changed the official name for the town from “Queenstown” to “Komani”.
History
Queenstown was founded in early 1853 under the direction of Sir George Cathcart, who named the settlement and then the fort after Queen Victoria. Work on Queenstown’s railway connection to East London on the coast was begun by the Cape government of John Molteno in 1876, and the line was officially opened on 19 May 1880.
The town war memorial was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1922, with its sculpture by Alice Meredith Williams.
The town prospered from its founding up to the worldwide depression of the 1930s, and again thereafter. In the 1960s, the majority of the Black population was moved east to the township of Ezibeleni, as part of the attempt to move African people to so-called “homelands”.
