Pietermaritzburg

Pietermaritzburg is the legislative capital of South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, with 223,448 residents at the 2011 census. Founded in 1839 by Voortrekkers after their conflict with the Zulu Kingdom and named for the leaders Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz, it was the scene in 1893 of the railway station incident in which a young lawyer named Mohandas Gandhi was thrown off a first class train carriage, an experience that led him to stay in South Africa and begin his campaign against racial discrimination; the city hosts a campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the annual Comrades Marathon and Dusi Canoe Marathon.