Umzimvubu

Municipality

Umzimvubu Local Municipality

Local municipality. Official code EC442. 2,581 km².

District and province

Alfred Nzo, Eastern Cape

The district municipality sits between the municipality and the province.

Wards

28

On the 2026 boundaries, in force from 4 November 2026.

Electricity supplier

Eskom

Umzimvubu is not a licensed distributor, so homes here buy from Eskom directly. Eskom’s own tariffs are not in our data.

Water services

Alfred Nzo District Municipality

Responsible for drinking water and wastewater here. The district, not the municipality, is the authority.

Fuel zone

Zone 12B

From the magisterial district named like its towns: Umzimvubu. The zone sets what petrol costs.

Petrol 95 Down R0.01

R30.11 a litre

From 4 November 2026. 1c less than last month and R9.09 more than a year ago. Zone 12B.

Tolls

No toll plazas None found

No toll plazas inside Umzimvubu. (Tolls that are not set in the Government Gazette are not in our data, and 1 gazetted toll point has no position yet.)

Minimum wage Same everywhere

R30.23 an hour

The national minimum, from 1 March 2026. Many jobs have their own, higher minimum.

Prime lending rate Same everywhere Up 0.25

10.75% a year

Since 25 September 2026, when the repo rate rose to 7.25%. Most home loans follow prime.

The rand Same everywhere

R16.96 to the US dollar

On 13 November 2026, the newest business day. Worked out from the European Central Bank’s reference rates.

Drinking water

0 of 7 drinking-water systems at high or critical risk

None is rated high or critical. Blue Drop risk ratings, 2024. These are all of Alfred Nzo’s, because the district is the water services authority.

Wastewater works

3 of 6 at high or critical risk

Bizana, Cedarville and Matatielle. Green Drop, 2024. These are all of Alfred Nzo’s, because the district is the water services authority.

Water lost before it reaches a tap

Medium risk

Alfred Nzo District Municipality is rated medium (53.3%) in the 2025 No Drop report.

Dams in the Eastern Cape Province

93.6% full

Weekly report of 9 November 2026. All 47 dams of the province in the report, weighted by size. Umtata Dam is 101.2% full. They are not necessarily the dams that supply Umzimvubu.

Weather, November so far

31.3 °C hottest day

48 mm of rain from 1 to 5 November 2026; a normal November has 126 mm. Hottest on 5 November 2026. Weather here is averaged over a 9 km grid: the 35 grid cells the municipality overlaps, each weighted by its area in it. Modelled estimates from a weather reanalysis, averaged over the whole place: not readings from a weather station, and not a forecast.

Land cover, 2021

65% grassland

Of the land ESA WorldCover maps here in 2021: grassland 65%, trees 14%, shrubland 12%, cropland 6.8%. The shares add up to 100%.

Built-up area, 2020

35.5 km² 1.4% of the place

Roofs and paved ground as the satellite sees them (GHSL), every five years. 7.40 km² in 1975. It says nothing about who lives there or how. The two built-up figures measure different things: land cover counts every 10 m square that is mostly built on, roads and gardens between the roofs included; built-up area counts only the roofs and paved ground themselves, so it is the smaller.

People, 2026 (modelled)

225,200 about 87 a km²

An estimate from satellite-based models, not the census. Two models differ by about 8%.

Greenness, October 2026 Well above normal

0.52 on the greenness scale

How green the whole place looks from space; a normal October is 0.37, so well above normal. The scale runs from about 0 (bare ground) to about 0.9 (thick green growth). The satellite saw 99% of the area.

Drought, October 2026

No drought score +1.42 (0 is normal)

From rain over the last 3 and 12 months, evaporation and how green the land is, against the usual for the time of year: 0 is normal, −1 is dry, −2 is very dry. Our estimate, not an official drought declaration.

Fire, the twelve months to October 2026

756 fire detections

Fires spotted from space by NASA’s fire-spotting satellites, counted where they fall in the place; 63 ha burnt in 7 of those months (the rest not out yet). The most since 2012: 2013, 1,381. Seen from space, not fires reported on the ground.

Surface water, 2025

6.23 km² on average

Open water seen from space over the year: each spot counts for the share of clear looks it was wet; 2.95 km² was water nearly all year, 22.5 km² at some point. 61% of the place was seen clearly. The most since 1984: 1997, 9.03 km². Seen from space, not a survey; a missing year is left out, not counted as dry.

Nitrogen dioxide in the air, 2025

6.1 µg/m³, the year’s mean (modelled)

Near the ground, averaged over the whole place by a European air-quality model, not a reading at any address. WHO’s yearly guideline is 10 µg/m³. Winters 10 µg/m³, summers 3.3 µg/m³ over the last five years.

How hot the ground got, summer 2025 to 26

35.6 °C on clear mornings

How hot the ground itself gets (roofs, roads, soil, leaves), seen from space at about 10 in the morning, averaged over the municipality. It is not the air temperature; on a sunny day the ground is often far hotter.

Night light seen from space, 2025

0.23 nW/cm²/sr on average, 5.2% of the land lit

NASA Black Marble at about 1:30 in the morning, averaged over the municipality; 229% brighter than 2012. Light, nothing more: it can't tell grid from solar, or who pays.