Laingsburg Local Municipality (WC051)

Description: The Laingsburg Local Municipality is a Category B municipality situated within the Central Karoo District in the Western Cape Province. It is one of three municipalities in the district, making up a quarter of its geographical area. Laingsburg is a modern Karoo town, only 280km from Cape Town. The town lies in a geologically fascinating area, steeped in history and tradition.

It dates back to the mid-1700s. In those years, farmers along the banks of the Buffels River offered hospitality to adventurers brave enough to cross the mountains and venture out onto the arid plains of the Great Karoo. In exchange for news of Cape Town and the civilized world, as well as gossip garnered from other farms along the way, these isolated farmers of the interior offered accommodation, sustenance and fodder.

Many early officials and explorers, such as Barrow, Lichtenstein, De Mist and Swellengrebel, wrote of the people they met in what was later to become the district of Laingsburg. They described the Karoo as ‘awesome, hot, dry and dusty. An inhospitable land peppered with friendly outspans, veritable jewels in the desert’. Today, it is a worthwhile and hospitable stop on the busy N1 highway through the Great Karoo.