Things to Do in KwaDukuza Beyond the Sugar Mills

Most people arrive in KwaDukuza already knowing one thing about it: this is where King Shaka was killed, and his memorial stands in the middle of town. That is a real reason to come, but it is not the whole of it. The genuine list of things to do in KwaDukuza runs through a busy commercial centre that still goes by its old name of Stanger to almost everyone who lives here, a food culture built by families who arrived to cut sugar in the 1860s, and a coastline that starts about seven kilometres east at Blythedale Beach.

KwaDukuza is a working town first and a place to visit second. It is not a resort, and it does not pretend to be one. The reward for coming here is that almost nothing is staged for visitors. You eat where the town eats, you walk streets that are busy because people are actually shopping, and the history is standing on a street corner rather than roped off behind a ticket booth.

Stand where King Shaka was assassinated

The single most significant thing to see is the King Shaka Memorial and Visitor Centre, in the centre of town on King Shaka Street. This is the spot where the Zulu king was attacked by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana in 1828, and where a memorial stone was later raised over what is taken to be his grave. The rock he is said to have been sitting on has been moved a few metres and set beside the memorial.

Give yourself an hour. There is a short slide show on Shaka's life, an interpretive centre, and two traditional huts on the grounds, one built for sleeping and one for storing food. Phone ahead to make an appointment rather than simply turning up, and if you can come near the 24th of September you will find the annual Shaka Day ceremony, led by the current Zulu king, taking place right here. The fuller account of how Shaka died and why the town carries his name is worth reading before you go, so the memorial means something when you are standing in front of it.

Directly opposite the Visitor Centre, the KwaDukuza Museum has moved into a new building topped with a tower shaped like an isicholo, the traditional hat worn by married Zulu women. Inside, the displays run from the early settlers and the sugar and paper industries to Chief Albert Luthuli and a set of exhibitions marking thirty years of democracy. It is a genuine museum now rather than the single curio room the town had for years, and the two sites together make an easy first stop.

Eat your way through the CBD

The best everyday reason to be in KwaDukuza is the food. The Indian and halaal cooking here comes straight down the line from the indentured workers who arrived to cut sugar from 1860, and the CBD is where you find it. Curry, biryani and bunny chow, which is a hollowed half-loaf of bread filled with curry, are the things to order.

From there the choice is wide. Mozambik brings Portuguese-Mozambican grills and peri-peri to town for a change from curry, and the reliable family sit-down at Sanchez Spur when someone in the group just wants ribs and a familiar menu. The full run of where to eat across KwaDukuza, from curry houses to grills is worth having open on your phone before you decide.

Walk the working town

In KwaDukuza the town centre is itself the activity. The CBD is a dense, busy grid, and on a weekday it moves at a real commercial pace, which is either the appeal or the warning depending on what you came for. It is loud, it is practical, and parking takes a little patience. Come in October or November and the town's jacaranda streets are in full purple, which is the one time of year KwaDukuza looks like a postcard of itself.

The modern anchor is KwaDukuza Mall, where The Mall Cafe is an easy place to sit down between shops. The older trade runs through long-standing family stores, among them the discount aisles of Selwels and the racks at Clothing Junction.

For a braai pack or something to cook back at a self-catering place, the butcher locals use is Ideal Butchery.

Get to the beach and into the green

KwaDukuza sits inland, so for sand and swimming you look east. Blythedale Beach is the closest, about seven kilometres away in a straight line, a wide family beach with lifeguards and shark nets in season. A little further, toward the Tugela River mouth, the Harold Johnson Nature Reserve holds Fort Pearson and the Ultimatum Tree, and makes an easy half-day of walking and history.

If you end up spending the afternoon at the coast, Grumpy's at Blythedale is the obvious lunch stop once you are down there, roughly seven kilometres east of town.

Finish with something sweet and a sundowner

Two easy pleasures close out a day here.

For a drink with the day winding down, the local move is a shisanyama, a grill where you choose your meat and it is braaied for you on the spot. Gidela Lounge and Shisanyama is a relaxed one to settle into.

How to spend a day in KwaDukuza

Put simply: heritage first thing, curry for lunch, the town in the early afternoon, and the beach or the nature reserve after that. Start at the memorial and museum while the day is still cool, eat in the CBD, walk the shops, then head east to Blythedale or out to Harold Johnson for the late afternoon. If you are staying over, where to stay in and around KwaDukuza depends a lot on whether you want a base in the working town or out by the water, and getting to KwaDukuza and finding your way around is straightforward once you know which road to take.