QwaQwa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974–1994 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag
 Coat of arms
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 Location of QwaQwa (red) within South Africa (yellow). | |||||||||
| Status | Bantustan | ||||||||
| Capital | Witsieshoek | ||||||||
| Common languages | Sesotho English Afrikaans | ||||||||
| Chief Minister | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Self-government | 1 November 1974 | ||||||||
• Re-integrated into South Africa | 27 April 1994 | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1980[1] | 620 km2 (240 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1980[1] | 157,620 | ||||||||
• 1991[2] | 542,886 | ||||||||
| Currency | South African rand | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | South Africa | ||||||||
QwaQwa was a bantustan ("homeland") in the central eastern part of South Africa. It encompassed a very small region of 655 square kilometres (253 sq mi) in the east of the former South African province of Orange Free State, bordering Lesotho. Its capital was Witsieshoek. It was the designated homeland of more than 180,000 Sesotho-speaking Basotho people.
The frequent snow on the Drakensberg mountain peaks led the San to call the region "Qwa-Qwa" (whiter than white). In Afrikaans it was known as "Witsieshoek", after Oetse (also Witsie and Wetsi), a Makholokoe chief who lived there from 1839 to 1856.[3]
Three tribes lived in the region, the Makholokoe, Bakoena and the Batlokoa. In 1969[4][better source needed] they were united and the area was named "KwaKwa". In the same year, the name was changed to "QwaQwa" to avoid an ethnic identification.[clarification needed]
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