The historic South African town with a 95-metre-high waterfall that was voted the best in KwaZulu-Natal

The historic town of Howick was the official KwaZulu-Natal finalist in Kwêla’s Dorp van die Jaar (Town of the Year) competition for 2026.

Howick’s roots date back to long before European settlement, when the indigenous San and, later, the Zulu people inhabited the surrounding Midlands.

It was there that they discovered the 95-metre-high Howick Falls, which the Zulu named kwaNogqaza, or ‘Place of the Tall One’.

In the 1840s, Voortrekker and British transport wagons moving inland from Pietermaritzburg crossed the uMngeni River at a dangerous ford upstream from the waterfall.

Many travellers were swept over the precipice, prompting British colonial authorities to create a safer river post for visitors in 1850.

In November of that year, the British purchased part of Wesleyan missionary Reverend James Archbell’s farm near the waterfall.

That same year, the government auctioned 36 village plots, officially establishing Howick as a town.

It was named after the British Colonial Secretary Earl Grey, whose ancestral family seat was Howick Hall in England.

From there, the town grew in significance, playing an important role in the Anglo-Boer War when it was used as the site of a British concentration camp.

Howick is also considered an important historical landmark in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle.

On 5 August 1962, the town became a focal point when former President Nelson Mandela was arrested on the R102 between Howick and nearby Lidgetton. 

It was this arrest that preceded Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment before he was elected President in 1994.

To this day, the Nelson Mandela Capture Site is located in the town near the exact spot where Mandela was arrested.

The site serves as an exhibition space detailing Mandela’s life, the historical context of his underground activities, and the journey of the freedom struggle.

Today, Howick is known as a Midlands hub and popular tourist area, serving as the commercial centre for the surrounding agricultural community.

It became a central anchor of the Midlands Meander, South Africa’s first arts-and-crafts tourism route.

The town has been praised for its natural beauty and comfortable lifestyle, which was recognised by Kwêla’s Town of the Year competition.

In the 2026 edition of the competition, which received 120,000 votes, Howick became the official finalist for KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), though it lost out to the winner, Hartbeespoort.

Howick’s political landscape

Howick also serves as the administrative seat of the uMngeni Local Municipality, one of the few in KwaZulu-Natal controlled by the Democratic Alliance (DA).

uMngeni Local Municipality, home to 105,069 residents, is the DA’s first outright municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, despite having been an ANC stronghold for two decades.

At the end of apartheid, Howick was integrated into uMngeni Local Municipality, and from 2000 to 2021, it was controlled by the ANC.

November 2021 marked a turning point for Howick, as the local government elections made the town the centre of a historic political shift.

That year, the DA won 13 of the 25 council seats, capturing outright control of the municipality. This marked the first time the DA had ever won an outright majority in a KZN municipality.

“Clearly, the people of uMngeni have had enough of the neglect and decay that have decimated their towns over the past two decades,” the DA said at the time.

“Future generations in uMngeni will owe them a debt of gratitude for halting the slide and setting the municipality on a different course.”

The council elected Chris Pappas as mayor that year, which represented a decisive shift to modern politics for Howick.

Today, the municipality remains a national political battleground between the DA, ANC, and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) due to its status as a high-profile test case for opposition governance in KwaZulu-Natal.

uMngeni recently ranked seventh in the FW de Klerk Foundation’s 2026 Local Government Report Card.

The municipality received a grade of A-, or 81.5%, for its disciplined finance, stable leadership, and credible delivery of assigned functions.

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Photos of Howick

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