Sarah Baartman District Municipality

Sarah Baartman old: Cacadu
District municipality
Seal
Location in the Eastern Cape
Coordinates: 33°57′S 25°36′E / 33.950°S 25.600°E / -33.950; 25.600
Country	South Africa
Province	Eastern Cape
District	Sarah Baartman District Municipality
Seat	Gqeberha
Local municipalities	List Dr Beyers Naudé Blue Crane Route Makana Ndlambe Sundays River Valley Kouga Kou-Kamma
Government [1]
• Type	Municipal council
• Mayor	Khunjuzwa Eunice Kekana (ANC)
Area
• Total	58,194 km2 (22,469 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[2]
• Total	450,584
• Density	7.7/km2 (20/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011) [2]
• African	53.3%
• Coloured	34.9%
• Indian/Asian	0.3%
• White	10.9%
First languages (2011) [2]
• Xhosa	45.4%
• Afrikaans	45.1%
• English	6.5%
• Other	3%
Time zone	UTC+2 (SAST)
Municipal code	DC10

The Sarah Baartman District Municipality (Xhosa: uMasipala weSithili sase Sarah Baartman; Afrikaans: Sarah Baartman-distriksmunisipaliteit), formerly the Cacadu District Municipality, is situated in the western part of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, covering an area of 58,242 square kilometres. The area of the district municipality includes seven local municipalities. The seat is the city of Gqeberha, although Gqeberha is not itself in the district (it is in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality). As of 2011, the languages most spoken among the 388,201 inhabitants were Xhosa and Afrikaans. The district code is DC10.

The municipality is a multi-ethnic administration, formed by the African National Congress government through the merging of the predominantly Afrikaans-speaking western part of the Eastern Cape, together with Xhosa areas near the Fish River, and the English district of Albany (with its own distinctive local culture, dating back to the 1820 settlers).

The name Cacadu is regarded by the Xhosa as covering the entire area of the district municipality, but in fact it is taken from a river that runs entirely in Gqeberha. Cacadu, meaning "bulrush water", is the Xhosa form of the Khoekhoe name of the river. The Dutch name is a translation: Papenkuils (in Afrikaans a bulrush is called a papkuil). The river rises in the Parsons Vlei and runs to the sea close to the Gqeberha industrial suburb of Deal Party.

In 2015, the municipality was renamed for Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman (1789–1815), a Khoekhoe woman who was taken to London to perform at freak shows and after her death her remains were exhibited until 1974. The renaming is part of an effort to redress marginalisation of the Khoekhoe people.^[3]