Richards Bay (Afrikaans: Richardsbaai) is a coastal city in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, situated on the Indian Ocean coast and on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of South Africa’s largest harbours.
Richards Bay also has the deepest natural harbour on the African continent and is considered to be the industrial and tourism centre of the area, and occupies 37% of the total 796sq/km municipal area.
Richards Bay began its existence as a small fishing town and flourished with the development of the Port of Richards Bay, the country’s deepest and largest port, in 1976. It has been earmarked by the Government as one of the country’s growth and development points, and through the Industrial Development Zone initiative (IDZ) will attract a great deal of investment. Richards Bay is already home to some of the country’s most productive and lucrative industries.
Richards Bay is the main town and administrative centre/seat of both the City of uMhlathuze Local Municipality and the King Cetshwayo District Municipality.
History
The town began as a makeshift harbour that was set up by Commodore of the Cape, Sir Markus Eugene Brown, during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.
In 1902, Cathcart Methven, the harbour engineer for the Natal Government, in his Zululand Port Survey, recognized the potential of Richards Bay as a new harbour for the eastern shore.
In 1935, the Richards Bay Game Sanctuary was created to protect the ecology around the lagoon, and by 1943, it expanded into Richards Bay Park. The town was laid out on the shores of the lagoon in 1954 and proclaimed a town in 1969.
In 1965, the South African Government, under Minister of Transport Ben Schoeman, decided to build a deep-water harbour at Richards Bay. Construction work began in 1972 and lasted four years. In January 1976, there was a forced removal of local inhabitants of the Mthiyane Zulu clan. On 1 April 1976, the new deep-water harbour was opened with a railway and an oil/gas pipeline linking the port to Johannesburg. The new residential area for Richards Bay was developed north of the harbour. Meerensee, started in 1970, was the first suburb. It was followed by Arboretum in 1975 and Veldenvlei in 1980.
All three suburbs were exclusively for whites under the existing laws of Apartheid. A township for blacks was developed at Esikhaweni, fifteen kilometres south of Richards Bay. Residential areas for Indians and coloureds (Brackenham and Aquadene) were opened after 1985, west of Veldenvlei. The three suburbs of Richards Bay (excluding the black township of Esikhaweni) had a combined population of about 20,000 in 1990.
