Ntambanana Local Municipality was a local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal’s uThungulu (now King Cetshwayo) District, named after the Ntambanana River that ran through it. It covered roughly 1,083 km² and had a 2011 census population of 74,336.
In 2016, the municipality was abolished and its territory divided among three neighbouring municipalities: uMhlathuze, Mthonjaneni and uMfolozi local municipalities.
Ntambanana had no large town; its economy was rural, based on subsistence and small-scale commercial farming across scattered settlements including Bambela, Ellingham, Heatonville, Hlangasa, KwaMawanda, Mkhandwini, Mount Charnwood, Ndodwane, Obesa, River View, Sangoyana and eBayala.
The exact split gave each successor municipality a share of the former Ntambanana area: land nearer Richards Bay and Empangeni went to uMhlathuze, land nearer Melmoth to Mthonjaneni, and land nearer the KwaMbonambi and coastal side to uMfolozi. Residents in the former Ntambanana area today fall under one of these three municipalities, depending on which side of the old boundary their settlement sits.
The name survives in local usage and in the Ntambanana River itself, which still flows through the King Cetshwayo District. No settlement in the former municipality carries the Ntambanana name as its own town. Older maps and some local signage still mark the area as “Ntambanana,” and long-time residents continue to use the name informally even though it no longer denotes a municipal authority or appears on current municipal maps.