This small town is also the home of King Bhekuzulu College, one of the popular boarding schools in the province.

The area has six royal palaces belonging to the late Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini: This area was once the home of King Zwide, a late 18th-century Ndwandwe monarch who was eventually defeated by Shaka at the beginning of the Mfecane wars.

[3] In response Ndabuko (Cetshwayo's younger brother) gathered around 5,000 uSuthu warriors who marched northward under Makhoba kaMaphitha to retake the kraals.

[4][5] The town itself was only established in 1887 with the building of Fort Ivuna by the British as a buffer zone between the Zulu warring factions.

[6] It was originally called Ndwandwe but was later replaced by an earlier name given by the local tribesmen to the sacred area where the town stands: KwaNongoma ("place of the diviner or mother of songs").