KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu and Natal Province.
Durban is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South Africa, on the Natal Bay of the Indian Ocean, Durban is South Africa's busiest port and was formerly named Port Natal. North of the harbour and city centre lies the mouth of the Umgeni River; the flat city centre rises to the hills of the Berea on the west; and to the south, running along the coast, is the Bluff. Durban is the seat of the larger eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which spans an area of 2,556 km2 (987 sq mi) and had a population of 4.2 million in 2022, making the metropolitan population one of Africa's largest on the Indian Ocean. Within the city limits, Durban's population was 595,061 in 2011. The city has a humid subtropical climate, with hot, wet summers and mild, dry winters.
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King Dingane's royal homestead uMgungundlovu. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in Afrikaans and is often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of uMgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to local, district and provincial government offices located here.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal is a public research university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville.
Mbongeni Ngema was a South African playwright, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, and theatre producer, best known for co-writing the 1981 play Woza Albert! and co-writing the 1988 musical Sarafina!. He was known for plays that reflected the spirit of black South Africans under apartheid, and won much praise for his work, but was also the subject of several controversies. He died in a car accident on 27 December 2023.
Isipingo is a town situated 19 kilometres (12 mi) south of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and currently forms part of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The town is named after the Siphingo River, which in turn is thought to be named for the intertwining cat-thorn shrubs (Scutia myrtina) present in the area, or the river's winding course.
Inanda or eNanda is a township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa that is situated 21 km north-west of Durban. It forms part of eThekwini, the Greater Durban Metropolitan Municipality. Populated primarily by Zulu-speaking Black Africans, Inanda is the home of John Langalibalele Dube, first President of the African National Congress (ANC), a former residence and base of operations of Mahatma Gandhi, and the birthplace of the syncretic Nazareth Baptist Church
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) is a multi-campus university situated in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was formed in 2002 following the merger of Technikon Natal and ML Sultan Technikon and it was initially known as the Durban Institute of Technology. It has five campuses in Durban, and another two in Pietermaritzburg. In 2022, approximately 31 991 students were enrolled to study at DUT. The university is one of five technical institutions on the African continent to offer Doctoral Degrees.
Chatsworth is a large township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa established in the 1950s to segregate the Indian population and create a buffer between the white suburbs of Durban to the north and the black townships of Durban to the south. Located in the Southern Durban basin and roughly bordered by the Umhlatuzana River in the North and Umlaas River in the South, the suburb is made up mainly of Indian/Asian and Black African people.
Indian South Africans are South Africans who descend from indentured labourers and free migrants who arrived from British India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it one of the largest ethnically Indian-populated cities outside of India.
The Constitution of South Africa protects all basic political freedoms. However, there have been many incidents of political repression, dating back to at least 2002, as well as threats of future repression in violation of this constitution leading some analysts, civil society organisations and popular movements to conclude that there is a new climate of political repression or a decline in political tolerance.
There have been many political assassinations in post-apartheid South Africa. In 2013 it was reported that there had been more than 450 political assassinations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal since the end of apartheid in 1994. In July 2013 the Daily Maverick reported that there had been "59 political murders in the last five years". In August 2016 it was reported that there had been at least twenty political assassinations in the run up to the local government elections on the 3rd of August that year, most of them in KwaZulu-Natal.
Shiyani Ngcobo was a Maskandi guitarist and teacher from South Africa. He toured Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom during the early 2000s in support of his album Introducing Shiyani Ngcobo becoming a major influence in taking Maskanda music to international audiences. In addition, he taught maskandi guitar at the School of Music of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He died near Durban on 18 February 2011.
Lauretta Ngcobo was a South African novelist and essayist. After being in exile between 1963 and 1994 – in Swaziland, then Zambia and finally England, where she taught for 25 years – she returned to South Africa and lived in Durban. Ngcobo's writings between the 1960s and early 1990s have been described as offering "significant insights into the experiences of Black women of apartheid's vagaries". As a novelist, she is best known for And They Didn't Die (1990), set in 1950s South Africa and portraying "the particular oppression of women who struggle to survive, work the land and maintain a sense of dignity under the apartheid system while their husbands seek work in the mines and cities."
Keshav Athmanand Maharaj is a South African professional cricketer. Maharaj represents the South Africa national team in Tests, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket. He is currently the vice-captain of the side in limited overs cricket. Maharaj also captains Durban's Super Giants in the SA20.
Sibongiseni Ngcobo is a South African politician who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) in the National Assembly since May 2019. A member of the Democratic Alliance, he was the youngest Member of the National Assembly at the time of his election to Parliament. Ngcobo served as a DA councillor in the Richmond Local Municipality from 2016 to 2019.
Mnqobi Yazo is a South African singer-songwriter. Born in kwaMaphumulo, and raised in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, released his first project Iscephu in 2018. After he signed a record deal with Mabala Noise, his debut album Impi (2020), which incorporated elements of African trap, Afro-pop, and maskandi, was certified platinum in South Africa.
Ndawoyakhe Wilson Ngcobo is a South African politician who served in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature from 1999 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2014. In the interim, he served briefly in the National Assembly from 2006 to 2009. He was a member of the Democratic Party (DP), later the Democratic Alliance (DA), until September 2005, when he crossed the floor to join the African National Congress (ANC). In 2015, he left the ANC to establish the National Religious Freedom Party, a KwaZulu-Natal-based party of which Ngcobo is president.
Beatrice Thembekile Ngcobo was a South African politician and activist who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 2004 until her death in 2018. She served the KwaZulu-Natal constituency from 2009 onwards and chaired the Portfolio Committee on Tourism from 2014 to 2018.
