The province has two capitals, Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi; the largest city is Durban. The province is bounded on the north by Mozambique, Swaziland, and Mpumalanga and on the west by Free State, Lesotho, and Eastern Cape; a small portion of Eastern Cape also forms an enclave in S Natal. The province rises from a narrow (except in the north) coastal belt to an inland region fringed in the west by the Drakensberg Range, whose highest point in Natal is c.11,200 ft (3,410 m). The Tugela River flows west to east across the center of the province.
Sugar refining is the main industry. Sheep, cattle, citrus fruits, corn, sorghum, cotton, bananas, and pineapples are also raised. Industries, located mainly in and around Durban, include (besides sugar refineries) textile, clothing, rubber, fertilizer, paper, and food-processing plants, tanneries, and oil refineries. There large aluminum-smelting plants at Richards Bay, on the central coast. The province produces considerable coal (especially coking coal) and timber. It has a good rail network; Durban is one of South Africa's major ports. About 75% of the population is black. During apartheid, a large percentage were forced to live in Bantu homelands (Bantustans), which had a subsistence economy based on cattle raising and corn growing. The main institutions of higher education are the Univ. of Natal (Durban and Pietermaritzburg) and the Univ. of Durban. Natal National Park in the Drakensberg Range includes falls (c.2,800 ft/850 m) of the Tugela River.
In the early 19th cent. the area was inhabited primarily by Bantu-speaking Zulu people. In the 1820s and 30s the British acquired much of Natal from the Zulu chiefs Shaka and Dingane. Afrikaner farmers (Boers) arrived (see Trek, Great) in 1837 and, after battles with the Zulu (notably the Boer victory over Dingane at Blood River in 1838), established (1838-39) a republic. In 1843, Britain annexed Natal to Cape Colony, and a Boer exodus followed. In 1856, Natal became a separate colony. Sugarcane cultivation began c.1860, and many Indians (mostly indentured laborers) came to work in the sugar industry. Many Indians remained in Natal after their indenture expired; by 1900 they outnumbered whites. In 1893, Natal was given internal self-government; in 1910 it became a founding province of the Union (now Republic) of South Africa. In the 1980s and early 1990s, KwaZulu-Natal was wracked by conflict between the African National Congress and the Zulu-nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, under the leadership of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi; fighting has since diminished.