De Doorns

De Doorns
De Doorns
De Doorns  De Doorns shown within Western Cape
Coordinates: 33°29′S 19°41′E / 33.483°S 19.683°ECoordinates: 33°29′S 19°41′E / 33.483°S 19.683°E
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
District	Cape Winelands
Municipality	Breede Valley
Government
• Councillor	Daniel Teswin Willemse
Area[1]
• Total	7.6 km^2 (2.9 sq mi)
Population (2011)[1]
• Total	11,278
• Density	1,500/km^2 (3,800/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)[1]
• Black African	40.0%
• Coloured	51.5%
• Indian/Asian	0.6%
• White	6.0%
• Other	1.9%
First languages (2011)[1]
• Afrikaans	64.0%
• Xhosa	25.2%
• Sotho	3.7%
• English	2.5%
• Other	4.5%
Postal code (street)	6875
PO box	6875
Area code	023

De Doorns is a town in Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It lies in the Hex River Valley, 32 km north-east of Worcester and 40 km south-west of Touwsrivier. It is in the centre of an export grape growing region, surrounded by over 200 table grape farms.

History

The town takes its name from the farm De Doorns boven aan de Hex Rivier (‘the thorns on the upper Hex River’), known as early as 1725.

The De Doorns farm was bought by the government of Cape Prime Minister John Molteno in 1875, to build a railway station for the rapidly expanding Cape Government Railways. The line was immediately built through De Doorns, connecting it to Cape Town on the coast and reaching Montagu Road(later Touws River) in 1877, on its way to Kimberley. Around the station, the hamlet of De Doorns would later develop.^[2]

A village management board was instituted for De Doorns in 1933 and municipal status attained in 1951.^[3]

References

1. Sum of the Main Places De Doorns, Hassie Square and Ekupumeleni from Census 2011.
2. Burman, Jose (1984), Early Railways at the Cape. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau. ISBN 0-7981-1760-5
3. "Dictionary of Southern African Place Names (Public Domain)". Human Science Research Council. p. 132.