Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg is the capital of
KwaZulu-Natal province in
South Africa, and was previously capital of the
Natal Province. Popularly called
Maritzburg, it was founded by the
Boers in
1838.
Pietermaritzburg is also home to a campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal,
Capital Status
At this time, the city shares capital status with Ulundi. The debate over which city should be a capital has been ongoing since the fall of apartheid in 1994. The core points in the debate seem to be that Ulundi was the capital of the Zulu Kingdom, before its fall to the British in the Anglo-Zulu War, and Zulu people represent the ethnic majority in the province, while on the other hand Pietermaritzburg is centrally located, and has traditionally been the capital, meaning that the infrastructure necessary for running a province already exists there.
A resolution of the debate is desirable, since at this point in time staff and resources for administering the province are distributed between the capitals, resulting in enormous expenditure on transporting staff between the centres.
As a point of interest, the largest city in the province is Durban, though this city does not enter into the debate.
Some History
Pietermaritzburg was founded in the 19th century AD, and was named after Piet Retief and Gert Maritz, two famous Voortrekker leaders, one of whom was murdered by Dingane, successor to Shaka, king of the Zulus. At the time of the rise of the Zulu Empire, the site that was to become Pietermaritzburg was called Umgungundlovu, Zulu for "Place of the Elephant". I've been told this is because Shaka had his warriors hunt elephant there, to sell the ivory to English traders at Durban, then called Port Natal. Today, the town is still called by its Voortrekker name, although the municipality it is part of bears the Zulu name.
Pietermaritzburg is also famous for an incident early in the life of Mahatma Gandhi, wherein he was thrown off a train for riding in the first class carriage (and being Indian). This incident inspired Gandhi to begin his career protesting against laws discriminating against Indians in South Africa. Today, a bronze statue of Gandhi stands in Church Street, in the city centre.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal, which took an active part in the struggle against Apartheid, and was one of the first universities in the country to provide education to black students.
Other Claims to Fame
The city hall is the largest red-brick building in the Southern Hemisphere, and has been burned down twice.
Pietermaritzburg is also home to the largest statue of a horse in the world, which stands outside the recently constructed Golden Horse Casino.
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