The Salvation Army in KwaZulu Natal (Mathunjwa Army)

On 4 March 1883 Major and Mrs Francis Simmonds with Lieutenant Alice Teager ‘opened fire’ in Cape Town. Other officers were sent to the island of St Helena in 1886 to consolidate work commenced (in 1884) by Salvationist ‘Bluejackets’. Social services began in 1886. The Army’s first organised ministry among the African people was established in 1888 in Natal and, in 1891, in Zululand. Evangelistic effort in Mozambique, pioneered in 1916 by African converts, was officially recognised in 1923.