Pietermaritzburg
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 and is often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, and is 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 city has many schools and tertiary education institutions, including a campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
History
The city was occupied by Voortrekkers, in April 1838 following the murder of Piet Retief and his seventy-strong party at the Zulu Capital, Mgungundlovu, when seeking land to settle around Port Natal, and from where the reprisal departed to defeat Dingane at the Battle of Blood River. Pietermaritzburg is approximately direct from the Zulu capital, Mgungundlovu.Prior to the battle a vow was taken that if the Boers were granted victory over the Zulu, then a sacred church would be built which still stands today, . It was Jan Gerritze Bantjes, Secretary General to Andries Pretorius, Commander of the campaign who arranged the financing of the church by the Boer towns folk which by then had taken a low priority after the war.
The town grew rapidly to become the capital of the short-lived Boer Republic or Natalia. Britain took over Pietermaritzburg in 1843 and it became the seat of the Natal Colony's administration with the first lieutenant-governor, Martin West, making it his home. Fort Napier, named after the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Thomas Napier, was built to house a garrison. In 1893, Natal received responsibility for its own government, and an assembly building was built along with the city hall.
File:Gandhi Jee's Statue.jpg|thumb|left|Bronze statue of Gandhi commemorating the centenary of the incident at the Pietermaritzburg Railway Station, unveiled by Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Church Street, Pietermaritzburg, in June 1993 On 1 June 1893, while the young Mahatma Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a first-class carriage. Despite Gandhi having a first-class ticket, he was ordered by the conductor to move to the van compartment at the end of the train: he refused, and he was removed from the train at Pietermaritzburg.
Shivering through the winter night in the waiting room of the station, Gandhi made the momentous decision to stay on in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination against Indians there. Out of that struggle emerged his unique version of nonviolent resistance, Satyagraha. Today, a bronze statue of Gandhi stands in Church Street, in the city center.
In 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, Natal became a province of the Union, and Pietermaritzburg became one of the capitals of the country. During apartheid, the city was segregated into various sections. 90% of the Indian population was moved to the suburb of Northdale while most of its Zulu inhabitants were moved to the neighbouring township of Edendale and white inhabitants were moved out of those areas.
Name
There exist two interpretations about the origin of the city's name. One is that it was named after Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz, two Voortrekker leaders. The other is that it was originally named after Piet Retief's full name alone. In this interpretation the original name was "Pieter Mauritz' Burg", later transliterated to the current name. In 1938, the city announced officially that the second element Maritz should also honour Gert Maritz.In fact, neither Retief nor Maritz ever reached Pietermaritzburg. Retief was killed by Dingane, successor to Shaka, king of the Zulus. Maritz died of illness on 23 September 1838 near the present-day town of Estcourt, some eighty kilometres northwest of Pietermaritzburg, after the battle with the Zulus at Bloukranz.
At the time of the rise of the Zulu Empire, the site that was to become Pietermaritzburg was called uMgungundlovu. That is popularly translated from the Zulu as "Place of the Elephant" although it could also be translated to mean "The elephant wins".
Umgungundlovu is thus thought to be the site of some Zulu king's victory since "Elephant" is a name traditionally taken by the Zulu monarch. Legend has it that Shaka had his warriors hunt elephant there to sell the ivory to English traders at Durban. Today, the town is still called by its Voortrekker name although the municipality of which it is part bears the Zulu name.
Education
The University of Natal was founded in 1910. In 1922 the University extended to Durban. The two campuses were incorporated into the University of Natal in March 1949. It became a major voice in the struggle against apartheid and was one of the first universities in the country to provide education to African students. It became the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004.Capital status
Pietermaritzburg was the capital of the Colony of Natal until 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, and Natal became a province of the Union. Prior to 1994, Pietermaritzburg was the capital of Natal Province. Following the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa, as a result of which the Inkatha Freedom Party won a majority in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, Pietermaritzburg shared its status as capital of the province of KwaZulu-Natal with Ulundi. Pietermaritzburg became the legislative capital of the new province, while Ulundi became the administrative capital.The IFP, being strongly Zulu nationalist, desired that Ulundi, the capital of the Zulu Kingdom at the time of its fall to the British in the Anglo-Zulu War, be the post-apartheid capital of the province. Ulundi had also been the capital of the bantustan KwaZulu, which makes up a portion of modern KwaZulu-Natal. However, Ulundi severely lacked the infrastructure to be an effective seat of government, and the African National Congress and the Democratic Party, the two other strong political parties in the province, among others, called for Pietermaritzburg alone to be the capital.
The debate came to an end when the ANC came to power in the province in 2004, and named Pietermaritzburg the sole capital of KwaZulu-Natal. This has resulted in the relocation of several government offices to Pietermaritzburg, an action that has generally been welcomed as a positive development for the region. Since 2004, progress such as the modernisation of several buildings in the city centre and a proliferation of retail and housing developments in the suburbs are results of recent investment in the city by both the public and private sectors.
Economy
Until the late 1990s, the region was renowned for the production of high-quality textile, clothing and footwear products. An example of the latter included the production of Doc Marten shoes. However, these industries have declined in the area due to lower production costs in Asia. Extensive timber plantations and numerous citrus farms surround the city, contributing a significant share of the city's output.The Liberty Group has made major investments in several phases in the region since 2002 with the development of the Liberty Midlands Mall and Stay Easy hotel. Hulett's Aluminium and Willowton cooking oil contributes a substantial part of the region's industrial output.
Pietermaritzburg is also the city where major South African pizza franchise Debonairs Pizza was founded in 1991.
Coat of arms
The Pietermaritzburg borough council assumed a coat of arms in 1861. The shield depicted an elephant standing on grass, and a cross of five stars was placed above the shield. The motto was Umgungunhlovu. It is unclear what the original colours were, but by 1910, the shield had been coloured blue. By 1931, the council had approved new artwork in which the stars were placed on a radiant sun.The arms were registered with the Natal Provincial Administration in November 1950. Many early renditions of the coat of arms, visible on older public building and wrought iron lampposts, features an elephant which is clearly an Asian elephant rather than an African elephant. More recent versions reflect an African elephant.
The final version of the arms was granted by the College of Arms in May 1961. It was registered at the Bureau of Heraldry in May 1973. The blazon was Per fess Azure and Vert, over all an elephant statant Or, tusked Argent. The crest was changed to a blue sun displaying gold and silver stars, and two black wildebeest were added as supporters. Each had a shield on its shoulder, the dexter supporter's shield displaying the Union Jack and the sinister supporter's the flag of the Natalia republic.
Transport
Road
Pietermaritzburg is on the N3 highway, the primary route between the harbour city of Durban, some away, and the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging conurbation.The R33 connects Pietermaritzburg with Greytown and Paulpietersburg, while the R56 connects Pietermaritzburg with Ixopo and Kokstad.
Air
The city is served by Pietermaritzburg Airport, which has regular scheduled services to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. There are 4 flights to Johannesburg and 4 return flights daily, with a reduced number of weekend flights. It once operated flights to Cape Town International Airport in Cape Town – this route was terminated in 2019.Rail
is served by long distance trains on the Durban-Johannesburg and Durban-Cape Town routes of Shosholoza Meyl.It has been proposed that the Metrorail commuter rail system be expanded from Cato Ridge to Pietermaritzburg.