Zulu King launches campaign to drop 'Natal' from province name

ZULU monarch King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has launched a campaign to rename KwaZulu-Natal province, arguing that "Natal" should be dropped as it represented colonial history.

He said that  that the region was originally known as KwaZulu before colonisation.

Before the 1994 elections and the advent of the new democratic dispensation, the province was officially known as Natal although the areas across uThukela river (Tugela) on the north east of the province was referred to as KwaZulu. 

Speaking during the 147th edition of the Battle of Isandlwana, in Nquthu in the north of the province on Thursday, the king announced that he would start a campaign to drop the name Natal from the province’s name and insisted that it must be known as KwaZulu.

"We need to remove this Natal. This is KwaZulu so I don't understand why we have this Natal,” said the king.

The king’s argument was that prior to the colonisation of the province the area was known as KwaZulu and fell under the Zulu kingdom.

He said the colonisers renamed it Natal.

During the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) negotiations in the early 90s there was intense debate about the renaming of provinces, particularly Natal. The IFP pushed for the inclusion of KwaZulu, in recognition of the Zulu kingdom.

This was rejected and the IFP announced that it would boycott the first democratic elections in 1994.The ANC and the then National Party reached a compromise with the IFP and agreed that provincial governments must be given powers to decide on their names and Natal was then renamed KwaZulu-Natal.

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