Umzimkhulu is a town in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, situated on the banks of the Mzimkhulu River and along the R56 Provincial Route, approximately 18 km south-west of Ixopo, 108 km south-west of Pietermaritzburg, and 243 km north-east of Mthatha.
The town developed from a trading-post and was laid out in 1884. It was named after the Mzimkhulu River on which it is situated. The word, Mzimkhulu, is Zulu and Xhosa for ‘big place’, ‘large home’ of the waters.
Umzimkhulu is the main town and administrative centre/seat of the uMzimkhulu Local Municipality, which is part of the Harry Gwala District Municipality.
Until 1 March 2006, the town was part of an exclave of the Eastern Cape Province, before being transferred to KwaZulu-Natal as part of the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa.
During the KwaZulu-Natal riots of July 2021, more than 50 people died in a furniture store in the town that was set alight while looters were robbing it.
