Manzini (formerly Bremersdorp) is a large city in
Eswatini
Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...
, which is also the city of Eswatini's
Manzini Region. The city is the country's second largest urban center behind the capital
Mbabane
Mbabane () is the most populous city in Eswatini (previously called Swaziland), and is one of the two Capital (political), capitals (along with Lobamba), serving as the Executive (government), executive capital.
It has an estimated population of ...
, with a population of 110,000 (2008). It is known as "The Hub" of Eswatini and lies on the
MR3 road. Eswatini's primary industrial site at
Matsapha lies near the town's western border.
History
A commercial center from the time a trading post was opened in 1885, Bremersdorp was designated a township in 1898. Arthur Bremer sold his hotel for use to British Colonial authorities who had administered Swaziland since 1894 as their national administrative headquarters, and stipulated that the settlement would bear his name (''dorp'' is the
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
word for "village"). The name reverted to its original Swazi name, Manzini, in 1960 in honor of Chief Manzini Mbokane who was one of the trusted confidant and senior indvuna of King Mbandzeni. Chief Manzini Mbokane was the father to
Ntengu kaGama Mbokane.
The town was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
/
Boer
Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...
colonial headquarters from 1890, but was destroyed in 1902 amid the
Anglo-Boer War when the
administrative center
An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located.
In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...
was transferred to
Mbabane
Mbabane () is the most populous city in Eswatini (previously called Swaziland), and is one of the two Capital (political), capitals (along with Lobamba), serving as the Executive (government), executive capital.
It has an estimated population of ...
. However, Bremersdorp subsequently remained the commercial, agricultural, and transportation heart of Swaziland, earning the town the nickname "The Hub." Since its inception in the 1920s, the Agricultural and Mechanical Show (name later changed to the Swaziland International Trade Fair) has been the country's largest and best-attended annual event.
In 1915, the first hotel since Bremersdorp's post-Anglo/Boer War reconstruction was opened on the banks of the
Mzimene River. Named the Riverside Hotel, it remained opened until 1997, changing its name over the years to the Manzini Arms Hotel and in the 1990s the Velebantfu Hotel. The buildings were intact after closure for several years but were leveled in 2008 by private developers. A shopping mall opened on the site in 2011.
Opened in the 1970s,
Matsapha International Airport, Swaziland's only commercial airport, lay 10 km. to the west. As of 2014, Matsapha closed, and
King Mswati III International Airport, 56.9 km east, is the new international airport. Manzini is the closest urban center. Agricultural Bank of China is a major financier of the new international airport.
Manzini was declared a city in 1994, when its administrative apparatus, the Manzini Town Council, became the Manzini City Council.
Manzini is home to a Nazarene High School, which has a successful school choir.
Geography
Residential areas radiate outward from the Central Business District. At the western terminus of the city on the highway to Mbabane is KaKhoza Township, a poor neighborhood with the appearance of an informal settlement. North of downtown beyond the Mavuso International Trade Fair (opened 2004) along a bypass road (opened 1994, rebuilt 2004 for the opening of the Mavuso Trade Fair) is Helemesi Estates. Here middle-class dwellings were erected in the early 1990s on the former farm of Sydney Williams, the long-serving Resident Commissioner during British rule. Helemesi is the SiSwati corruption of the name Williams. The housing development is surrounded by Fairview Township, developed in 1964 during the twilight of colonial rule as Eswatini's first integrated residential neighborhood. The 19th-century law, reaffirmed by ordinances in the 1920s, forbade Swazis from residing or owning businesses in Bremserdorp. Until the 1960s Swazi business proprietors used Europeans as fronts in order to operate "Native Eating Houses" and other establishments.
The popularity of Fairview Township prompted the expansion of the area north of a hill occupied at its summit by St. Paul's Methodist Church and School, beside a landmark water tower. The newer development was named Fairview North and the original development became Fairview South.
Upscale residential neighborhoods were erected to the east of downtown, beginning with Coates Valley in the 1960s. Extension 6 north of Coates Valley is predominantly middle-class homes and abuts a planned community of up-market properties, Madonsa Township. Large homes were erected at Madonsa Township from the 1990s until all lots were developed ten years later.
South of downtown is the sprawling lower and middle-class Ngwane Park Township developed from a private farm since the 1970s. However, most areas surrounding Manzini are rural Swazi Nation Land administered by chiefs.
Manzini has pockets of extreme poverty: informal settlements along the river, east of Coates Valley, and west between KaKhoza Township and the industrial town Matsapha.
Transworld Radio Swaziland
There is a Christian radio station called Voice of the Church based in the city. It was established in 1995 and they had one transmitter by then.
Climate
Manzini has a
humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
: ''Cwa'') with hot, rainy summers and mild, dry winters.
Town twinning
Manzini is
twinned with:
*
Keighley
Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish
in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford.
Keighley is north-west of Bradford, n ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
*
Ramales de la Victoria,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
Notable people
Anna Jochemsen the paralympian skier, was born here in 1985.
References
*Hall, James "Speak Manzini: An Autobiography of an African City" (Swaziland, Landmark Publishers, 2000)
*Matsebula, J.S.M. "A History of Swaziland" (Cape Town, South Africa, Longman South Africa, 1972)
External links
Manzini City Council website
{{Authority control
Populated places in Manzini Region