Ladysmith

Ladysmith, officially known as uMnambithi since 2024, is a town that serves as the seat of both the Alfred Duma Local Municipality and the Uthukela District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It lies 230 kilometres (140 mi) north-west of Durban and 365 kilometres (227 mi) south-east of Johannesburg. Important industries in the area include food processing, textiles, and tyre production.

The town was named after Juana María de los Dolores de León Smith, also known as "Lady Smith," the Spanish wife of Sir Harry Smith, the Governor of the Cape Colony from 1847–1852. It held strategic importance during the Second Boer War when, after numerous small skirmishes, it was besieged by Boer forces on 2 November 1899. After three British attempts to relieve the defenders and one Boer attempt to take the town all failed, the siege was eventually broken on 28 February 1900. Both Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi were present at the siege, the former as a war correspondent and the latter as a stretcher-bearer.