EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality

A map of South Africa showing eThekwini (within KwaZulu-Natal province)

eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality [1] is the Metropolitan Municipality created in 2000 that includes the city of Durban, South Africa and surrounding towns. eThekwini is one of the 11 districts of KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The majority of its 3,090,126 people speak IsiZulu (2001 Census).

Meaning of the Name eThekwini

There is much debate over the meaning of eThekwini, and neither the eThekwini Heritage Department nor the eThekwini Metropolitan Unicity Municipality will state as an absolute fact the derivation of the name.

Some argue that the name is derived from a joke made by the leader of the amaThuli, Chief Shadwa, when the amaThuli settled on the bay; the story is that Chief Shadwa or a jester looked down from the area of today's Berea and said that the bay was a one testicled thing. Certainly, as Adrian Koopman points out in his brilliant work, "Zulu Names"[UNP; Pietermaritzburg-2002] , Elizabeth Pooley's "Complete Field Guide to Trees of Natal, Zululand and the Transkei" has the Tonga-Kerrie recorded with the Zulu name umthekwini, referring to the single round fruit at the end of each stem. This shows that the term "itheku" is or has been used for a one-testicled animal or person, instead of today's "ithweka". It is the fact that the word "itheku" is not used today that leads many to believe that the legend of Shadwa's joke is a myth.

Janie Malherbe made the claim that Bishop Colenso advocated the meaning in his pioneering Zulu to English dictionary of an "open mouth or a bay" for iTeku because of modesty- clearly she did not read his dictionary, which unblushingly gives many explicit words and their definitions.

Commandant Sighurt Bourquin, the well-known authority on the Zulu, pointed out that the shape of the harbour would not be readily apparent when it was covered with mangroves viewed obliquely through the trees.

Probably eThekwini is probably the locative form of itheku- bay, lagoon. There is however a suggestion that it is derived from the Xhosa iteko- a meeting place, and brought to the area by the British Settlers in 1824, many of whom had learnt Xhosa whilst in the Cape

Geography

Neighbours

eThekwini is surrounded by:

• iLembe (DC29) to the north
• the Indian ocean to the east
• Ugu (DC21) to south
• Umgungundlovu (DC22) to the west

Demographics

File:ZA Durban language.gif

Geographical distribution of home languages in Greater Durban (eThekwini).

The following statistics are from the 2001 census.

Language	Population	%
IsiZulu	1 948 061	63.04%
English	925 671	29.96%
IsiXhosa	106 110	3.43%
Afrikaans	44 438	1.44%
Other	28 866	0.93%
Sesotho	21 587	0.70%
IsiNdebele	6 041	0.20%
Sepedi	3 266	0.11%
SiSwati	2 433	0.08%
Setswana	1 807	0.06%
Xitsonga	1 356	0.04%
Tshivenda	484	0.02%

Gender

Gender	Population	%
Female	1 605 080	51.94%
Male	1 485 046	48.06%

Ethnic group

Ethnic group	Population	%
Black African	2 110 594	68.30%
Indian/Asian	614 829	19.90%
White	277 429	8.98%
Coloured	87 274	2.82%

Age

Age	Population	%
000 - 004	273 097	8.84%
005 - 009	286 606	9.27%
010 - 014	294 820	9.54%
015 - 019	323 345	10.46%
020 - 024	331 475	10.73%
025 - 029	316 326	10.24%
030 - 034	256 429	8.30%
035 - 039	236 009	7.64%
040 - 044	195 032	6.31%
045 - 049	154 640	5.00%
050 - 054	129 097	4.18%
055 - 059	91 991	2.98%
060 - 064	72 334	2.34%
065 - 069	50 020	1.62%
070 - 074	37 078	1.20%
075 - 079	21 847	0.71%
080 - 084	12 877	0.42%
085 - 089	4 678	0.15%
090 - 094	1 717	0.06%
095 - 099	560	0.02%
100 plus	148	0.00%

Politics

Election results

Election results for eThekwini in the South African general election, 2004.

• Population 18 and over: 2 046 814 [66.24% of total population]
• Total votes: 978 383 [31.66% of total population]
• Voting % estimate: 47.80% votes as a % of population 18 and over

Party	Votes	%
African National Congress	577 835	59.06%
Democratic Alliance	158 874	16.24%
Inkhata Freedom Party	133 790	13.67%
Minority Front	44 236	4.52%
African Christian Democratic Party	20 821	2.13%
Independent Democrats	12 558	1.28%
New National Party	8 182	0.84%
United Democratic Movement	7 696	0.79%
CDP	2 287	0.23%
Pan African Congress	2 018	0.21%
Freedom Front Plus	2 001	0.20%
SOPA	1 544	0.16%
Azanian People's Organisation	1 501	0.15%
United Christian Democratic Party	1 469	0.15%
NA	722	0.07%
UF	647	0.07%
KISS	511	0.05%
PJC	506	0.05%
TOP	504	0.05%
EMSA	460	0.05%
NLP	221	0.02%
Total	978 383	100.00%

References

• Municipal Demarcation Board
• Stats SA Census 2001 page
• Independent Electoral Commission 2004 election results

External link

• eThekwini Online The official site of Durban, South Africa
• Accommodation in the eThekwini Metropole The biggest selection of accommodation in the eThekwini Metropole