title: Umzimkhulu
text: # Umzimkhulu
  
  Umzimkhulu is a town in Harry Gwala District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
  
  The town lies 243 km north-east of Mthatha, 18 km south-west of Ixopo, and 108 km south south-west of Pietermaritzburg, the provincial capital. It developed from a trading-post and was laid out in 1884. Takes its name from the Mzimkulu River on which it is situated; Zulu and Xhosa for 'big place', 'large home' of the waters.
  
  Until 1 March 2006, the town was part of an exclave of the Eastern Cape, 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.
  
  