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. The city has a humid subtropical climate,with hot,wet summers and mild,dry winters.
Hillcrest is a town in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa that forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and is situated approximately 32 km north-west of Durban and 53 km south-east of Pietermaritzburg.
Assagay,also spelt Assegay,is a suburb of eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa and forms a part of the Upper Highway Area.
A series of South African municipal by-elections was held in 2008 for ward seats on local municipal councils throughout the country. These by-elections were held to replace deceased,resigned or incapacitated councillors.
The primary administrative divisions of South Africa are the nine provinces. The provinces are divided into 52 districts,which are either metropolitan or district municipalities,with the district municipalities being further divided into local municipalities. Metropolitan and local municipalities are divided into wards.
Morningside is an affluent suburb of Durban,KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa.
The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality,created in 2000,that includes the city of Durban and surrounding towns. eThekwini is one of the 11 districts of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. As of 2011,the majority of its 3,442,361 inhabitants spoke isiZulu.
Mpumalanga,also widely known as Hammarsdale,is a township located in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It is situated some 10 km south-south-east of Cato Ridge and some 50 km west of Durban. Derived from Zulu,the name means 'sunrise','the sun comes out'.
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.
In March 2013 around a thousand people occupied a piece of land in Cato Crest,Durban and named it Marikana after the Marikana miners' strike. Mayor James Nxumalo blamed the occupation on migrants from the Eastern Cape. He was strongly criticised for this by the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo who said that "The City Hall is red with blood".
Dean William Macpherson is a South African Member of Parliament for the Official Opposition,the Democratic Alliance and Provincial Chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal. He served his first full term in the National Assembly from 2014 - 2019 and was re-elected to the National Assembly on 8 May 2019 to begin his second term.
Zandile Ruth Thelma Gumede is a South African who has been serving as a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature since 2020. She served as the Executive Mayor of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality from 2016 until 2019. Gumede is a member of the African National Congress. And the current Chair Person of the African National Congress (ANC) at EThekwini Region.
Zwakele Maxwell Mncwango is a South African politician who is the provincial chairperson of ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal. He was a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 2018 to 2022 and served as the Leader of the Opposition in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 2018 to 2019. He was the Provincial Leader of the KwaZulu-Natal Democratic Alliance (DA) from 2015 to 2021. Mncwango was the party's KwaZulu-Natal Premier candidate for the 2019 election.
Mohammed Haniff Hoosen is a South African politician who served as a Member for the National Assembly for the Independent Democrats (ID) (2007–2014) and for the Democratic Alliance (DA) (2014–2024). Within the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet,he was the Shadow Minister of Home Affairs from 2014 to 2019,the Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from 2019 to 2020 and the DA's spokesperson on the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General from 2020 until his resignation in 2024.
Christopher "Chris" John Pappas is a South African politician who is the mayor of the uMngeni Local Municipality. A member of the Democratic Alliance,he served as party's deputy provincial leader from 2021 until 2023. Pappas served as a member of the eThekwini city council from 2016 until 2019 and as a DA Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 2019 to 2021.
Heinz Ulrik de Boer is a South African journalist and politician who has been a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature since May 2019. A member of the Democratic Alliance,he was previously the ward councillor for Umhlanga in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
Philani Godfrey Mavundla is a South African politician and business tycoon who has been the Mayor of the Umvoti Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal since 2023,having previously served from 2011 to 2013 as a member of the African National Congress. He served as the Deputy Mayor of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality from 2021 until 2022. He is the founder and current leader of the Abantu Batho Congress,a party he founded in early-2020 after he resigned from the National Freedom Party (NFP).
James Sikhosiphi Nxumalo is a South African politician who has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature since 2019. He was formerly the Mayor of eThekwini from 2011 to 2016,and during that time he was engaged in a strident political rivalry with Zandile Gumede,who became his successor. He was elected to a five-year term on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 2022,and he has served as the Provincial Chairperson of the SACP's KwaZulu-Natal branch for over a decade.
Mmabatho Tembe is a South African politician who has served as a Member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature since December 2021. A member of the Democratic Alliance,she had previously served as a councillor in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
Visvin Gopal Reddy is a South African businessman and politician from Durban. He has been the leader of African Democratic Change since 2020 and represents the party as a local councillor in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
