Steven Kotze

Research Officer – Local History Museum, eThekwini Municipality

Steven Kotze graduated from the University of Natal in 1994 with a BA Hons degree specialising in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He subsequently spent 5 years at the historic battlefield of Rorke’s Drift, where he developed an interest in the complex relationship between oral history, storytelling and tourism development. Steven has lectured on this aspect of South African history both locally and abroad. He later worked as a Tutor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and spent two years as a heritage consultant, assisting to develop historical and cultural tourism policy for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

From 2008 – 2013 Steven worked together with a local municipality to develop a tourism initiative based around the oral presentations of history surrounding the Trappist monastery of Mariannhill near Durban. Since 2013 he has been on the staff of Durban’s Local History Museum as an exhibitions researcher, and has been working on two projects to document oral history of apartheid and political resistance in his city. Steven has published two books, on historical local tourism and rural folk art respectively. Steven Kotze is married, has two children and lives in Durban.