Sada, South Africa

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Sada is a semi-rural settlement in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, near Whittlesea and between Seymour and Queenstown. It covers about 4.6 square kilometers and had around 13,500 people in 2011, mostly Black African and Xhosa-speaking.

The name Sada can mean “we” in Khoikhoi or “finally/at last” in isiXhosa. The settlement began in 1964 as a forced-resettlement camp for people removed from Shiloh’s farmland after the land was bought by the Bantu Trust (later the South African Development Trust). Sada grew as people from Whittlesea and surrounding farms moved in, and the area became a self-contained town in the Hewu region.

In its early days, many residents lived in shacks, later replaced by four-room houses with basic water taps and toilets about 400 meters apart. The community expanded with new arrivals from various towns, and by the late 1970s tens of thousands had moved into Sada and the Hewu area. An extension called Emadakeni (The Mud Place) grew from mud houses. Between 1974 and 1977, people came from multiple towns and even faraway areas.

In 1979, Sada was incorporated into the Ciskei Bantustan, and in 1994 it became part of the Eastern Cape in South Africa after the end of apartheid. In the 1980s, Sada had several factories, including Royal Textiles and Golden Knitting, which employed many residents, but most closed after strikes in the early 1990s.

Today, the area is supplied with water from the Klipplaat River. Whittlesea provides administration and shopping facilities for Sada residents, and the Hewu Hospital is nearby. The Shiloh farm, once neglected, has been revived and is now home to Nkosi Wines.