KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu and Natal Province were merged. It is located in the southeast of the country, with a long shoreline on the Indian Ocean and sharing borders with three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho. Its capital is Pietermaritzburg, and its largest city is Durban. It is the second-most populous province in South Africa, with slightly fewer residents than Gauteng.
Durban is the third-most populous city in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal. Durban forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which includes neighbouring towns and has a population of about 4 million, making the combined municipality one of the largest cities on the Indian Ocean coast of the African continent. Durban was also one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal is a 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.
Pinetown is a city that forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, based just inland from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The town is situated 16 km north-west of Durban and 64 km south-east of Pietermaritzburg.
Westville is an area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and is just west and 10 km inland from the Durban CBD. It was a formerly independent municipality however it became part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in 2002.
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 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.
The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university opened a medical school for non-white students in Durban. The Pietermaritzburg campus was known for its agricultural engineering programmes, hence the nickname "the farmers" whilst the Durban campus was known as "the engineers," as it concentrated on other engineering programmes.
Abdul Kader Asmal was a South African politician. He was a professor of human rights at the University of the Western Cape, chairman of the council of the University of the North and vice-president of the African Association of International Law. He was married to Louise Parkinson and had two sons.
Malegapuru William Makgoba is a leading South African immunologist, physician, public health advocate, academic and former vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2013 he was recognised as "a pioneer in higher education transformation", by being awarded the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver, but has also generated extensive controversy during that process. He is also responsible for the unjust and unfair dismissal of several high profile academics from UDW and was accused of sexual harassment from his direct staff.
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.
Adam Mahomed Habib is a South African academic administrator serving as Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London since 1 January 2021. He served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 1 June 2013, when the term of his predecessor Loyiso Nongxa ended, and 1 January 2021. He is also a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Johannesburg.
Gareth Morgan is a South African politician and a former member of parliament with the opposition Democratic Alliance. He is a former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and previously worked as South Africa's Shadow Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs. He was South Africa's first carbon neutral Member of Parliament. He resigned from office in January 2013 to pursue a career in consulting., before joining the City of Cape Town as Principal Trade and Investment Officer in June 2015.
The Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959, formed part of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. This act made it a criminal offense for a non-white student to register at a formerly open university without the written permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs. New universities were then established for various non-white groups.
There have been a number of controversies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal since its foundation. Firstly, there have been several strikes and demonstrations on the part of both staff and students. Some strikes from 2009 onward have involved police intervention and the use of riot control measures, as well as violence on the part of some strikers. Secondly, there have been a series of legal and disciplinary actions taken by senior university management against academics for speaking in public about the university. These actions have drawn wide criticism, both from academics and from organizations such as Cosatu and UNESCO.
Salisbury Island is located inside the Port of Durban on the east coast of South Africa; it is a former island until the Second World War when construction of a naval base connected it to the mainland by a causeway. The island, then a mangrove-covered sandbank, was named after HMS Salisbury, the Royal Navy ship that surveyed the future harbour area for the newly established Port Natal Colony in the 1820s.
Mabel Palmer (1876–1958) also known as Mabel Atkinson in her first career, was a British-born, suffragist, journalist and lecturer. After her marriage, she began a second career as a South African educator and academic, using her married name. One of her most noted accomplishments came after her retirement from teaching, when she spearheaded a movement to provide university education for non-white students. After providing free courses in her home for a decade, she became director of the segregated courses offered by the Natal University College, serving from 1945 to 1955. After her second retirement, Palmer continued publishing until her death in 1958.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Durban in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.
Ravigasen Ranganathan "Ravi" Pillay is a South African attorney and African National Congress (ANC) politician who served as the Member of the Executive Council for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government from November 2020 until August 2022. He was the MEC for Finance from May 2019 to November 2020 and the MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works from 2011 to 2019. Pillay was elected to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature in 2009 and served as the legislature's chief whip of the majority party from 2009 to 2011.
Vusumuzi Cyril Xaba is a South African politician and a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2019. He is currently serving as Co-Chairperson of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans. A member of the African National Congress, he previously served in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature from 1994 to 2009 and from 2014 to 2019. He was the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2014 to 2016.
Magesvari "Maggie" Govender is a South African politician who represents the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature. A former anti-apartheid activist, she was KwaZulu-Natal's Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Human Settlements and Public Works between 2009 and 2011 and she has served as an ordinary Member of the Provincial Legislature since leaving that office.
