uMshwathi Municipality

uMshwathi Municipality (KZ221) is a local Municipality Serving, Wartburg, Swayimana, Cool-Air, Dalton, New Hanover, Crammond and Appelsbotch uMshwathi Municipality is ideally situated within the uMgungundlovu District Municipalityimmediately adjacent to Pietermaritzburg. uMshwathi comprises of four major urban centres (New Hanover, Wartburg, Dalton, and Cool Air) as well as rural residential settlements of Swayimane, Mpolweni, Thokozani and Ozwathini. uMshwati covers an area of about 1 811 km2. The local municipality is situated in an area which was largely under the control of tribal authorities until very recently. However, in the remaining portion there are towns built by German immigrants some 150 years ago. In the 1850s, 13 ‘cotton planter’ families fromOsnabruck unter Bergthell left Germany and settled in the area. They were followed by missionaries and other colonists, mostly from Hanover, who also settled in the region, founded New Hanover and Wartburg, and brought with them not only the Lutheran faith but the German language and culture. This little piece of Germany includes the towns of Harburg, Kirchdorf, New Hanover, Lillienthal, Schroeders and Hermannsburg. Wartburg itself is named after the castle in Eisenach where Dr Martin Luther translated the bible into German and the village crest also depicts the immigrants’ arrival by sailing ship, the Luther Rose and the call to ‘pray and work’