KwaZulu-Natal


KwaZulu-Natal South Africa Travel and accommodation guide (Image MediaclubSouthAfrica.com)KwaZulu-Natal lies on the eastern Indian Ocean coastline of South Africa, bordered by the Eastern Cape to the southwest, the Free State to the west and Mpumalanga to the north. It also shares borders with three countries: the Kingdom of Lesotho to the west, and Swaziland and Mozambique to the north. The third-smallest of the nine provinces, KwaZulu-Natal has a land area of 92 100 square kilometres, making it roughly the size of Portugal.

The province has three different geographic areas. The lowland region along the Indian Ocean coast is extremely narrow in the south, widening towards the north. The central region is the Midlands, an undulating hilly plateau rising towards the west. KwaZulu-Natal has two major mountain ranges: the Drakensberg in the west and the Lebombo Mountains in the north. The Drakensberg is a solid wall of basalt rising over 3 000 metres above sea level at the Lesotho border, while the more ancient granite Lebombo Mountains form low parallel ranges running southward from Swaziland. The Thukela River, the region’s largest, flows west to east across the centre of the province.

It is a summer rainfall area, with a climate that ranges from extremely hot along the coast in summer, to heavy snow on the mountains in winter. The Midlands are drier than the coast and can be very cold in winter.

Durban is KwaZulu-Natal’s largest city, and one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the world. Its harbour is the busiest in South Africa and one of the 10 largest in the world. Every year the port of Durban handles over 30 million tons of cargo with a value of more than R100-billion. To the north of Durban, the port of Richards Bay, an important coal-export harbour, handles about 12 000 containers a year. Combined, the two ports account for some 78% of South Africa's cargo tonnage.

The capital of KwaZulu-Natal is Pietermaritzburg. The province has several popular coastal holiday resorts, such as Port Shepstone, Umhlanga Rocks and Margate. In the interior, Newcastle is well-known for steel production and coal-mining, Estcourt for meat processing, and Ladysmith and Richmond for mixed agriculture.

Economy
KwaZulu-Natal saw an economic growth rate of 5.2% in 2007, and 5.3% in 2006. The province’s economy is the second-largest in South Africa, valued at R324.2-billion and contributing 16.2% to national GDP in 2007.

The province relies mainly on manufacturing (21.5% of GDP in 2005), the finance, real estate and business services industry (17%) and wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants (12.2%). The smallest industry is mining and quarrying (1.6%)

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