The Government of KwaZulu-Natal (IsiZulu: uHulumeni waKwaZulu-Natal) is the subnational government of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The politics of the province take place in the framework of a constitutional monarchy and liberal multi-party parliamentary democracy within a constitutional republic whereby the King of the Zulu Nation is the ceremonial figurehead of an elected government. The provincial government comprises the second sphere of government of South Africa and consists of three branches with checks and balances between them as follows: Executive: Premier of KwaZulu-Natal who appoints and chairs the Executive Council of KwaZulu-Natal Legislature: The unicameral KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature elected by proportional representation which elects the Premier Judiciary: KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court of South Africa appointed by the President of South Africa on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission KwaZulu-Natal traces its history to the Zulu Kingdom. The Zulu Kingdom was under the suzerainty of the Mthethwa Empire in the early 19th-century. Under King Shaka, the Mthethwa Empire was subsumed into the Zulu Kingdom in 1817. Following the Battle of Blood River, the Zulu Kingdom ceded territory to the Voortrekkers who formed the Natalia Republic therefrom in 1839. The Natalia Republic was conquered by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1843 and incorporated into the British Empire as the Natal Colony. The New Republic was formed from territory ceded by the Zulu Kingdom under King Dinuzulu to the Boers in 1884. The Zulu Kingdom became a British protectorate in 1887. The New Republic was annexed by the South African Republic in 1888. The Zulu Kingdom was annexed by the Natal Colony in 1897.
The Natal Colony became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910 as the Natal Province. The Zulu Territorial Authority was formed in 1970 from which the KwaZulu homeland was formed in 1977. The land of the KwaZulu homeland was vested in the Ingonyama Trust of which the Zulu King was the trustee in 1994. KwaZulu and the Natal Province were combined to form the KwaZulu-Natal province shortly afterwards and its government was finalised with the passing of the Constitution of South Africa in 1996. Although recognised as a paramount traditional leader of the Zulu people with a statutory relationship with the Natal and then KZN government since the Amakhosi and Iziphakanyiswa Act of 1990, the Zulu King was formally recognised as the monarch of the reunited province in 2005 with the passing of the KwaZulu-Natal Traditional Leadership and Governance Act.
Political history Pre-colonial era
The historical territory of the Zulu Kingdom as at 1811 comprises the modern-day territory of the KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN) and some of the institutions that characterised its government, namely its aristocracy and monarchy despite their weakening and changes during the period of European colonisation continue to exist as traditional leaders within the province.
The Zulu Kingdom was a small polity in the northern part of the territory that comprises modern-day KZN, that coexisted with other polities such as Khumalo, Ndwandwe etc., broadly known as the Nguni people. It came under the Mthethwa Empire when the lieutenant of King Dingiswayo and eldest son of King Senzangakhona kaJama, Shaka kaSenzangakhona assumed the throne of the Zulu Kingdom following his father's death. When King Dingiswayo was killed in 1817 following a battle with the Ndwandwe Kingdom under King Zwide kaLanga. King Shaka kaSenzangakhona succeeded King Dingiswayo and subsumed the Mthethwa Empire into the Zulu Kingdom, integrating the Nguni nations in the area of modern-day KZN which became the modern Zulu people.
During a period known as the Mfecane, King Shaka kaSenzangakhona and his successors conquered and annexed other kingdoms such as the Ndwandwe during the Ndwandwe-Zulu War. King Shaka kaSenzangakhona was assassinated by his younger half-brother King Dingane kaSenzangakhona in 1828. King Dingane kaSenzangakhona and his successors King Mpande kaSenzangakhona and King Cetshwayo kaMpande confronted the arrival of European colonists, namely those descending from those arriving with Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape region under the Dutch East India Company in 1619. With the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent French conquest of the Netherlands spread to the rest of South Africa's modern-day territory including in the area of the Zulu Kingdom.
This migration, known as the Great Trek, whose participants associated together as the Boers, confronted the Zulu. Following their loss to the Boers at the Battle of Blood River, the Zulu ceded a portion of their territory that became the Natalia Republic with its capital Pietermaritzburg being built in the area of the Zulu capital under King Dingane at uMngungundlovu which relocated to Ulundi. In the Scramble for Africa, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (UK) invaded the Natalia Republic following the Xhosa Wars with the isiXhosa-speaking people to the south in the modern-day Eastern Cape. They turned the Natal Republic into the Natal Colony and kept their administration based at its capital, the old Zulu capital city.
Colonial era
Following the Anglo-Zulu War, the Zulu dynasty was deposed and King Cetshwayo fled leaving his faction, the Usuthu behind (who continue to act as a traditional authority in the Nongoma area of modern-day South Africa). The British partitioned the Zulu Kingdom among various aristocrats and vassal rulers. Due to a Civil War between the Mandlakazi under Zibhebhu kaMaphitha and the Usuthu, the British attempted to restore King Cetshwayo who returned to Ulundi. King Cetshwayo returned to Zululand and was the last king of an independent Zulu Kingdom which became a British protectorate in 1887. With the aid of Afrikaner mercenaries (known as Dinuzulu's Volunteers), King Cetshwayo's son, King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo reunited the Zulu Kingdom in 1884. He ceded some Zulu territory to Afrikaners which was known as the Nieuwe Republiek. This country was annexed by the South African Republic in 1887.
The British government direct Sir Theophilus Shepstone, governor of the Natal Colony to annex the Zulu Kingdom, ending its protectorate status in 1897. While British subjects, the newly incorporated Zulu people did not acquire citizenship or equal rights and continued to be ruled through aristocrats subservient to the British and pushed to ethnic reservations. Two years later the Second Anglo-Boer War began. At its end in 1902 with the Peace of Vereeniging that resulted in the Natal Colony being absorbed into the Union of South Africa in 1910 with the passage of the South Africa Act by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Natal Colony became the Natal Province with Zulu people being further marginalised into ethnic reservations starting with the passage of the Natives Land Act of 1913, a policy opposed by King Solomon kaDinuzulu who founded the Inkatha yamaZulu in 1920 to resist the dispossession of Zulu land by the Union government.
Apartheid era
This movement succeeded by the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (simply Inkatha), founded and led by former member of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi that favoured non-violent resistance to the policy of apartheid under the National Party. Relations between the Inkatha and African National Congress (ANC) were close but deteriorated leading to violent altercations between the two.
When the KwaZulu homeland was formally established in 1977, it was government as a one-party semi-autonomous state under the Inkatha. Its capital was moved from Nongoma, the seat of the Zulu King at the time, to Ulundi in 1980. Inkatha was both perceived as an ethnonationalist puppet regime of the apartheid government and an anti-apartheid resistance movement and it disagreed with the ANC on economic sanctions and the armed struggle. Inkatha militia were trained by the South African Defence Force and subsequently the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, who pertrated violence such as the Boipatong massacre in 1992."Zuma and Zulu nationalism: A response to Gumede" . pambazuka.org
In the negotiations to end apartheid, the Inkatha refused to participate unless the Zulu monarch, then King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu was made a sovereign monarch. To that end, the KwaZulu government passed the Amakhosi and Iziphakanyiswa Act in 1990 recognising the Zulu King, the chief of the Usuthu tribe, as the King of the Zulus.South Africa (1990). KwaZulu Amakhosi and Iziphakanyiswa Act 10 of 1990. The KwaZulu government passed the Ingonyama Trust Act in 1994 to place all the land of the homeland under the trusteeship of the Zulu King via the Ingonyama Trust.South Africa (1997). KwaZulu-Natal Ingonyama Trust Act 9 of 1997 Despite initially pulling out from the 1994 South African general election, they agreed to participate.
Post-apartheid era
With the commencement of the Interim Constitution on the same day, 27 April 2024, KwaZulu homeland and Natal Province were dissolved and replaced by the KwaZulu-Natal province. Zulu people living in the former KwaZulu homeland who were disenfranchised, were allowed to vote and received full South African citizenship. Inkatha rebranded as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), joined the Government of National Unity with Prince Mangosuthu as Minister of Home Affairs and won a majority of the votes in KZN from the first democratic elections with Frank Mdlalose (former KwaZulu Minister of the Interior) being elected as the first Premier. He resigned in 1997 following his appointment as ambassador to Egypt. After nearly two years of Ben Ngubane as the Acting Premier,Curriculum Vitae of Baldwin Sipho "Ben" Ngubane - website Parliamentary Monitoring Group he was succeeded by Lionel Mtshali in 1999 following the 1999 South African general election.
Following the 2004 South African general election, S'bu Ndebele was elected Premier and the ANC became the governing party of KZN by winning a plurality of votes and the IFP became the official opposition. Following the 2009 South African general election, the ANC won its first outright majority and a landslide victory of over 62% in KZN when KZN native, Jacob Zuma became the President of South Africa. Sbu Ndebele was replaced as Premier by Zweli Mkhize. After Zweli Mkhize was elected Treasurer-General of the ANC in 2013, Senzo Mchunu was elected the Premier. He was defeated by Sihle Zikalala in 2016 for election as the KZN ANC Provincial Chairperson, resulting in his resignation as Premier. Willies Mchunu succeeded Senzo Mchunu. After the 2019 South African general election, Sihle Zikalala was elected as the Premier with the ANC declining in votes but retaining its majority.Mavuso, Sihle. Sihle Zikalala given KZN premier role, IOL, Durban, 13 May 2019. Retrieved on 13 May 2019.
In 2021, following (but not exclusively causally related to) the arrest of Jacob Zuma, the July riots erupted across the province leading to vandalism and looting of shops which spread to Gauteng. He resigned as Premier in 2022 and was replaced by the first female premier of KZN, Nomusa Dube-Ncube. The ANC was relegated to third place after the 2024 South African general election by the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (which won a 40% plurality in KZN under Jacob Zuma), the Inkatha Freedom Party negotiated a coalition with the ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA) as part of a broader grand coalition called the Government of National Unity that saw it returning to the premiership with the election of Thami Ntuli.
In December 2025, premier Thami Ntuli, narrowly survived with 39 votes to 40 a MK-sponsored motion of no confidence vote in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
Monarchy