Durban(redirected from EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality)
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Durban(dûr`bən), city, now part and seat of eThekwinieThekwini,
metropolitan municipality (2011 pop. 3,422,361), 885 sq mi (2,291 sq km), KwaZulu-Natal prov., E South Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Durban is the municipal seat; other communities include Umlazi, Chatsworth, Kwa-Mashu, Phoenix, and Inanda.
..... Click the link for more information. metropolitan municipality, KwaZulu-Natal prov., E South Africa, on Natal Bay, an arm of the Indian Ocean. Durban is an industrial center, a major seaport, and a year-round resort. Industries include sugar refining, shipbuilding and ship repairing, petroleum refining, fishing, automobile assembly, and the manufacture of food products, paint, chemicals, fertilizers, soap, footwear, and textiles. Sugarcane is grown on nearby estates. Durban is the main port for the WitwatersrandWitwatersrand
[Afrik.,=white water ridge] or the Rand,
region, Gauteng prov. (formerly a part of Transvaal), South Africa. The area, which forms the watershed between the Vaal and Olifants rivers, is c.
..... Click the link for more information. and is connected by railroad with Johannesburg and other cities on the Rand. Its main exports are manganese and other ores, coal, sugar, and corn. Corporate parks abound in its suburbs and Durban International Airport is nearby. Persons of Indian and Pakistani descent make up c.40% of the population.
The site of Durban was visited in 1497 by Vasco da Gama, who named it Rio de Natal; British colonization began in 1824. The city, first called Port Natal by the British, was renamed Durban in 1835 after Sir Benjamin D'Urban, then governor of Cape Colony. In 1842, BoersBoer
[Du.,=farmer], inhabitant of South Africa of Dutch or French Huguenot descent. Boers are also known as Afrikaners. They first settled (1652) near the Cape of Good Hope in what was formerly Cape Province.
..... Click the link for more information. (Afrikaners) besieged British troops in the Old Fort (now a museum) there. Gold was discovered in Johannesburg in the 1880s, and Durban became the chief commercial city of Natal and a major port after 1887, when the bay was dredged. The city was the site of the national convention (1908–9) that paved the way for the creation in 1910 of the Union of South Africa. Durban is the seat of the Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, and the Durban Univ. of Technology. Also there are the Durban Museum and Art Gallery, the Old Courthouse and Kwa Muhle museums, an aquarium, Greyville Race Course, and the botanical gardens in the hilltop suburb of Berea.
(Port Natal), a city in the eastern part of the Republic of South Africa, in Natal Province. An important port on the Indian Ocean, Durban had a population of 696,300 (1968, including suburbs), including 206,700 Bantu Africans, 270,300 Asians (mostly Indians), and 187,800 Europeans. Durban is an important chemical, oil-refining, food (sugar), textile, glass, and paper-manufacturing center. A ship-repairing yard and railroad workshops are located in the city. A railroad connects Durban with the mining centers of Transvaal and Natal provinces. Exports from Durban include manganate ores, chrome, coal, sugar, and wool. Oil is imported. The port’s freight turnover for 1967-68 totaled 22 million tons. Durban is a ship-refueling station and a base of the whaling industry. The University of Natal is located in Durban. The first European settlement was founded in 1824. In 1835 the settlement was named Durban, in honor of the governor of the Cape Colony, B. D’Urban. The construction of the port began in 1855.