Hlabisa is a settlement in Umkhanyakude District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Village between the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi game reserves, some 40 km north-west of Mtubatuba. Named after the Hlabisa tribe of Zulus. Neighbouring localities include Somkele (37 km); Nongoma (40 km); Kwamsane (43 km); Mtubatuba (47 km);Hluhluwe (48 km); Mahlabatini (50 km). Source: Hlabisa – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greytown is a town situated on the banks of a tributary of the Umvoti River in a richly fertile timber-producing area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. History Greytown was established in the 1850s and named after the governor of the Cape Colony Sir George Edward Grey who later became Premier of New Zealand. A Lutheran church was built in 1854. A church bell which was brought to the town for the Dutch Reformed Church in 1861 to summon worshipers. The Dutch and English congregations was the centre of a series of theological arguments and the church bell was stolen and buried, only to be found 74 years later upon the construction of some cottages near the old church. A strikingly designed Town Hall was opened in 1904. In 1906 following a poll tax and other oppressive measures imposed on the Zulus, the Bambatha Rebellion took place. The final resting place of Sarie Marais is at Greytown. Sarie was a legendary Voortrekker woman who died, aged 37, with the birth of her 11th child and is immortalised by the eponymous song, an indelible part of South African culture. Louis Botha, the Second Boer War General and first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, was born on a farm 5 km south of Greytown. The old farmhouse was destroyed by British Forces during search and destroy operations. Louis Botha led the Boer forces during their famous victory over the British at the Battle of Spion Kop. Source: Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scottburgh (pronounced scott-burra) is a resort town situated on the mouth of the Mpambanyoni River (confuser of birds), 58 km south of Durban on KwaZulu-Natal South Coast in South Africa. Neighbouring towns include Pennington, Renishaw, Freeland Park, Umkomaas, Sezela, Bazley, Amahlongwa, Clansthal, Park Rynie and Dududu. History Named after Natal Colony Governor John Scott and in 1860 it became the first township to be laid out south of Durban, but was initially known as Devonport. Scottburgh then became a very promising port as well as a new attractive location for sugar farms and sugar mills. In about 1850 the town started to attract immigrants especially from the United Kingdom, known as the Byrne Settlers. They came to take advantage of the good harbours, both locally and at Durban, and to export their sugar both internally and externally. Scottburgh became a municipality in 1964. Beaches Scottburgh Main beach along with Pennington and Park Rynie have been awarded blue flag status as of the 2014/15 summer season. Scottburgh and Pennington are both very popular for tourists to make their way to the beach. Scottburgh along with the two hotels and many B+B’s is also home to an award winning caravan park and camping ground. The summer season sees many tourists from the inland flock to the beaches of the South Coast. Geography Scottburgh is a bay situated on the South Bank of the Mpambanyoni River, a short river that culminates in a lagoon. It is one of the best geographic examples of a bay on the South African coast. Mpambanyoni mouth has fluctuated in surface area and volume dramatically over the years, largely due to the frequent droughts, occasional cyclones, and other extreme weather conditions that can affect KwaZulu-Natal. Scottburgh can be separated into Neighbourhoods: Scottburgh Central (North), Scottburgh South, Freeland Park (Which is Situated on the North side of the Mpambanyoni River. Most notorious of the above-mentioned cyclones was Cyclone Demoina of 1984 and the floods of 1987 which resulted in widespread flooding and infrastructural damage, including the destruction of the Old Main Road bridge from Durban and Umkomaas. Wildlife Wildlife found regularly inside the township includes snakes, skinks, geckos, numerous insects, millipedes, bushbuck, mongi, and most famously, large numbers of vervet monkeys. Genets have been sighted, and there are occasional unverified spottings of civets and similar small felines and cat-like mammals. Birds are abundant, perhaps the most noticeable being the raucous and much-loved hadeda ibis. The Indian mynah is widespread but regarded as a pest due to its habits of defecating in public restaurants and eating areas and pillaging the nests of native birds. This bird has presented similar problems in other areas in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The sardine run is also visible from the shores of Scottburgh and its surroundings most winters. The umdoni and Strelitzia are the best-known trees specifically associated with Scottburgh and its environs. Source: Scottburgh – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Estcourt is a town in the uThukela District of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The main economic activity is farming with large bacon and processed food factories situated around the town. The N3 freeway passes close to the town, linking it to the rest of South Africa. Location Estcourt is located at the confluence of the Bushmans and the Little Bushmans River. It is also on the main Durban -Johannesburg railway line some 160 km north of Durban and 25 km south of the Tugela River crossing. In earlier years the main road, later to become the N3, passed through the town. The town itself is 1196 m above sea level and lies in the hilly country that dominates most of the Natal Midlands. The Drakensberg lies some 40 km to the west of the town. The Nineteenth Century The earliest identifiable inhabitants of the Estcourt area were the bushmen, a hunter-gather people, though rock engravings dating from four different iron age periods have been found on the farm Hattingsvlakte. The bushmen had been displaced by the Bantu people, a pastoral people and in particular the Zulu, a tribe that traced its origins as a separate nation to the early eighteenth century. The bushmen had sought sanctuary in the foothills of the Drakensberg. In the early nineteenth century the Zulu king Shaka used the weapon of Mfecane (genocide) to build his empire. Thus, when the white settlers first arrived in the Estcourt area, the land appeared to be almost uninhabited. The First Settlers The first recorded settlement in the Estcourt area was in 1838 when a group of Voortrekkers encamped on the banks of the Bushmans River in anticipation of securing land right from Dingane kaSenzangakhona, the Zulu king. The negotiator, Piet Retief, and his party were murdered by Dingane on 10 February 1838 and in the small hours of the following morning attacks, since known as the Weenen massacre, were launched on the Voortrekker encampments along the Bloukrans River, the Bushmans River and the Mooi River. After a Voortrekker retaliation at the Battle of Blood River, Dingane was deposed and his place taken by Mpande. Panda seceded the land south of the Tugela River to the settlers which included the area that was to become Estcourt. The Voortrekkers set up the Natalia Republic, but after the Battle of Congella in 1842, they abandoned their settlements and moved into the interior, leaving Natalia to the British who established the Colony of Natal. Thus Natal acquired an English-speaking rather than an Afrikaans-speaking settler community and Estcourt, being so close to the Tugela River become a frontier outpost. In 1847 Clem Heeley was the owner of an inn and trading store at a ford on the Bushman’s River. On 4 December that year a military post known as Bushman’s River Post was established on a hill dominating the ford, whilst at the same time a village known as Bushman’s River was established across the river. On 4 January 1848 the Surveyor General recommended that the seat for the new magisterial district of Impofane be located at Bushmans River Drift. Initially the recommendation was ignored and the magistracy was located at Weenen, some 30 km away but in 1859, with the growing importance of Estcourt, the seat was moved there. The Byrne Settlers and the Name “Estcourt” The settler community was further strengthened by the arrival of the Byrne Settlers – English immigrants whose settlement in the Colony was sponsored by Thomas Estcourt, a North Wiltshire, MP. In 1946 there appears have been conflicting suggestions of why the town was called “Estcourt” – one body of opinion favouring the view that the town was named after Captain Estcourt, a member of the party who established the military outpost in 1847 and the other favouring the view that the town was named after Thomas Estcourt MP in 1863. Pearce, after extensive research which was backed up by the Ralfe family legend, supported the latter view which is now the accepted view. The Settlement Grows In 1872 an Anglican church was built on the banks of the Bushman’s River, and Fort Durnford was built in 1874 by Lt-Col Durnford, a military engineer, as a base for the Natal Mounted Police. The fort became a substantial stronghold, and was used to protect transport riders and the herds of cattle driven across the ford. It is as secure as any castle with drinking water tanks in the basement, a drawbridge, moat and two secret tunnels. The confirmation of large deposits of coal in the Dundee area in 1880, some 100 km north of Estcourt led to the building of a railway line to link the coalfields with Durban. In 1885 the railway reached Estcourt and a bridge that is still in use today was built across the Bushman’s River. The completion of the line to the coalfields the following year provided Estcourt with a good communications link to the coast. After a number of attempts to establish private schools had failed due to lack of support, the town’s first government school, the Estcourt Government School was established in 1886 with an initial role of 45 children. In accordance with the prevailing colonial policy, the school only admitted pupils of European descent. In 1895, the traveller Ingram described Estcourt as having ” … buildings [that] are strong and substantial, being for the most part constructed of hewn stone. A fort crowns the hill to the southward. There are in the town three churches, four hotels, and at the station a railway bar, A commodious sanatorium in connection with the Roman Catholic Mission has recently been established near the town. The population is put down at about 300 residents, though on market days, quite a large throng of farmers are to be met in its streets.” The mission station itself had been opened in 1892 – the second Augustinian Sisters establishment in Natal staffed mainly by French-speaking nuns from Canada and France. The mission had a school, sanatorium and a chapel for the Roman Catholic families in the town. The sanatorium was…
Eshowe is the oldest town of European settlement in Zululand. Eshowe’s name is said to be inspired by the sound of wind blowing through the more than 4 km² of the indigenous Dlinza Forest, the most important and striking feature of the town. Although the name is most likely to be derived from the Zulu word for the Xysmalobium shrubs, showe or shongwe. Today Eshowe is a market town, with a 100 km radius catchment area, two shopping centres, a main bus station serving the hinterland, a major hospital, and several schools. History In 1860 Cetshwayo, then only a Zulu prince, built a kraal here and named the place Eziqwaqweni (the abode of robbers). A mission station was established at Eshowe in 1861 once permission has been obtained from the Zulu King Cetshwayo by Norwegian missionary, the Reverend Ommund Oftebro. Later the station was called theKwaMondi Mission Station (place of Mondi) after the Zulu name which was given to Oftebro. Siege of Eshowe During the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, Colonel Charles Pearson led the coastal column to Eshowe. This column encountered part of the Zulu army at the Nyezane River, but after a short battle pushed on to the KwaMondi Mission which was fortified and called Fort Ekowe.The forces under Colonel Pearson were besieged for 10 weeks until relieved on April 3 by Lord Chelmsford after the Battle of Gingindlovu. Capital of Zululand After the war Eshowe was established as the capital of Zululand and the home of the British resident in Zululand, Melmoth Osborne. The nearby town of Melmoth is named after him. In 1887 Eshowe became the capital of Zululand and was officially declared a township in 1891. In 1947 the British Royal Family (King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret) visited and were welcomed in Eshowe by King Cyprian. The family toured the Dlinza Forest and spent a night in ‘The Residency’ in Eshowe. Eshowe served as the seat of the first Black Diocesan Bishops in South Africa, of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Church. Eshowe is still the seat of the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Zululand. Museums Fort Nongqayi – Fort of the Zululand Native police. Vukani cultural museum – Zulu pottery and handcrafts Nearby nature conservation areas Greater St Lucia Wetland Park Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve Itala Game Reserve Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area Source: Eshowe – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kranskop is a small town that is situated on the edge of the Tugela River valley in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1894 as Hopetown but the following confusion with another town of the same name in the Great Karoo, Northern Cape, the name was changed. Kranskop was chosen and is named after two cliff faces that rise 1,175 metres above the Tugela Valley near the town. The name is an Afrikaans word meaning “cliff head.” The Kranskop rock formation has major significance in local Zulu legend and folklore, for whom it is called “Ntunjambili”. The Zulu have ancient stories about a forbidden cave and a hill opening that provides protection from cannibals, but then it closes on those who have entered. Source: Kranskop – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
