Amatola Mountains, township housing and the interior plateau of the Eastern Cape, from the hills south of Grahamstown,


South Africa has set itself the target of eradicating informal settlements by 2014. In the centre of this view, we see a well planned estate of new government improved houses on former farmland at the eastern edge of the township area of Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The Human Settlement Redevelopment Programme, initiated in 1999, aims to improve the quality of life in the urban environment and address the housing backlog inherited from the apartheid government. The 2000m peaks of the Amatola Mountains rise on the northern horizon, beyond the eastern frontier of Cape Colony. The slopes west of the township estate, below a wooded hill known as Makana's Kop, were a 'place of blood' on April 22nd 1819, when in the 5th Xhosa War (1818-19) to secure the frontier, Xhosa Chief Makana marched over the distant ridges to attack the British garrison at Grahamstown, west of the picture.


Size: 5275px × 3431px
Location: Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, Republic of South Africa
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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