Dingleton, formerly known as Sishen, is a town situated about 20 km outside the mining town of Kathu in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.
Dingleton falls within the Gamagara Local Municipality and the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality.
The nearby Sishen mine is an iron ore mining activity, connected to the port of Saldanha Bay by the Sishen-Saldanha Railway Line. The line is electrified at 50 kV AC and the trains using this line are amongst the heaviest trains in the world.
The state-owned mining company Iscor started developing the township, originally named Sishen, in 1953 to accommodate the local miners. The houses were sold to individuals in the early 1980s. On 23 June 1990, the town’s name was changed from Sishen to Dingleton.
The proximity of the mining activities led to complaints from the residents of Dingleton, and expectations that the residents would be relocated. The town’s infrastructure is old and in disrepair.
To allow for Sishen’s expansion, Kumba, an Anglo American subsidiary, built Siyathemba, a new suburb 25 km away on the outskirts of Kathu, and relocated the residents of Dingleton. However about 25 family refused the relocation, asking Kumba to first pay them a fair amount for their homes .