Manzini, Swaziland
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Manzini Bremersdorp |
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|---|---|
| City | |
 Manzini
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| Coordinates: 26°29′0″S 31°22′0″E / 26.48333°S 31.36667°ECoordinates: 26°29′0″S 31°22′0″E / 26.48333°S 31.36667°E | |
| Country | Swaziland |
| Region | Manzini Region |
| Population (2008) | |
| • Total | 78,000 |
Manzini (formerly known as Bremersdorp) is a city in Swaziland; it is the capital of Swaziland's Manzini Region. The city is the country's second largest urban centre behind Mbabane, with a population of 78,000 (2008). It is known as "The Hub" of Swaziland and lies on the MR3 road. Swaziland's primary industrial site at Matsapha lies near the town's western border.
A commercial centre from the time a trading post was opened in 1885, Bremersdorp was designated a township in 1898. Arthur Bremer sold his hotel for use as British Colonial authorities who had administered Swaziland since 1894 as their national administrative headquarters, and stipulated that the settlement would bear his name (dorp is the Afrikaans word for "small town"). The name reverted to its original Swazi name, Manzini, in 1960.
The town was a British/Boer colonial headquarters from 1890, but was destroyed in 1902 amid the Anglo-Boer War when the administrative centre was transferred to Mbabane. However, Bremersdorp subsequently remained the commercial, agricultural and transportation heart of Swaziland, earning the town the nickname "The Hub." Since its inception in the 1920s, the Agricultural Show (name later changed to the Swaziland International Trade Fair) has been the country's largest and best-attended annual event.
In 1915, the first hotel since Bremersdorp's post-Anglo/Boer War reconstruction was opened on the banks of the Mzimene River. Named the Riverside Hotel, it remained opened until 1997, changing its name over the years to the Manzini Arms Hotel and in the 1990s the Velebantfu Hotel. The buildings were intact after closure for several years, but were leveled in 2008 by private developers. A shopping mall opened on the site in 2011.
Opened in the 1970s, Matsapha International Airport, Swaziland's only commercial airport, lies 10 km. to the west. Under construction in Sikhupe, 60 km east, is a new international airport. Manzini is the closest urban centre.
Manzini was declared a city in 1994, when its administrative apparatus, the Manzini Town Council, became the Manzini City Council.
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