Hobeni

Hobeni is a Village in Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The Mbhashe Municipality is a remote outpost of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The Mbhashe Municipality was constituted in terms of the Municipal Structures Act. No. 117 of 1998 (as amended) and comprises the areas that previously formed the Elliotdale, Willowvale and Dutywa TLCs and TRCs. The Municipality is located in the North Eastern part of the Amathole District Municipality's area of jurisdiction. The main administrative office of the Municipality is situated in Dutywa. Its primary claim to fame is as the birthplace of the former president Thabo Mbeki. The Mbanyana Falls, Mbhashe Cultural Village and Donald Wood's Snooker Room number among its attractions. The name Mbashe is derived from Xhosa. The municipality is named after the Mbashe river that cuts through the three areas, namely Xhora (Elliotdale), Gatyana (Willowvale) and Dutywa. The area also boats the head offices of the AmaXhosa Kingdom at Nqadu Great Place. Ikhaya Loxolo, a Community and Farm for people with special needs, is located near the Village. It’s just a circle of simple mud huts with roofs of thatch and floors of dung, in a mist-shrouded Valley, among rolling Hills, near the Village of Hobeni in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. In this under developed Area, in the former Transkei Homeland, where a racist government once tried to confine Xhosa people, nine out of ten adults are unemployed and one in four is infected with HIV. Tarred roads are rare, as are hospitals and clinics. "Ikhaya Loxolo is one of the few places where sanity prevails…even though most of its inhabitants are mentally ill and disabled!"