QwaQwa

QwaQwa ( pronunciation: wɑ wɑ! ), Previously succession Witzieshoek area, Kwakwa, Basotho ba Borwa and Basotho Qwaqwa, was a homeland in the east of the former South African province of Orange Free State. As the administrative seat of the Homelands served the township Phuthaditjhaba.

Name

The name comes from the language of the QwaQwa San and means whiter than white. It refers to the surrounding land sandstone mountains of the Drakensberg.

Geography

QwaQwa was in the Drakensberg Mountains, just east of the northernmost point of Lesotho. It covered an area of 655 km ², making it the smallest Homeland. In the southwest, it bordered on Lesotho, on the southeast by the then Natal province. The site is about 1650-3050 meters above sea level. The Elands River rises in the mountains of the former QwaQwas.

Besides the main town, there were no large towns. Outside of QwaQwa lived in 1989 in South Africa more about 1,725,000 Basotho.

History

Originally there were two Basothostämme in the field, the Bakoena and Batlokoa.

The character as a native reserve coined out after 1868, when the neighboring Basutoland with the approval of Moshoeshoe I. a British crown colony was. Due to the low population density, there was only the Dutch Reformed Mission education institutions ( Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sending ), which after 1867 was active here. The Volksraad, the parliament of the Orange Vrijstaat Republiek, granted for the school work of the Mission in this area since 1878 financial subsidies.

In consequence of the Native Affairs Act No. 23 of 1920 formed in some native reserves local councils (local council). The staff responsible for the regional management group of persons (board of management ) of Witzieshoek functionally equivalent to these local councils.

In the 1940s, the hill country of Witzieshoek was declared a drinking water catchment area. For long -term protection of water quality is moving the ancestral population to a change in their livelihoods, of the cattle economy to for working in remote mines. These are accepted by a large number of people living there. The ongoing soil erosion as a result of intensive land use they had tried to lift with measures within the Betterment programs.

Between 1950 and 1951 occurred in Witzieshoek area under the native population unrest. As triggering factors were more coercive measures to reduce livestock by government agencies. Since the second half of the 1940s an attempt was made to enforce the culling of a large number of cattle from the livestock of the ancestral population. These arrangements were initially ignored because it threatened the livelihood of the population remaining there. The backlash to increasing administrative pressure generated, which resulted in a riot.

According to the Minister of Bantu Administration and Development in a parliamentary session on February 27, 1968 several self-governing bodies of the natives have been formed by his ministry, including two Tribal Authorities ( tribal authorities ) with the powers of Regional Authorities (regional authorities).

In 1969, the area that had previously belonged to the Orange Free State, the South African government to Bantustan (later Homeland ) declares Kwakwa. In the same year the name Basotho ba Borwa was ( German: " South Basotho " ) amended, 1972 in Basotho QwaQwa. It was the only home land that was intended for Basotho. Chief Councillor ( German as: " Chief Councillor " ) was Wessels Mota.

A legislative assembly ( Basotho Qwaqwa Legislative Assembly ) was established in 1971 on the basis of Proclamation 225 of October 1. It replaced the previously acting administratively and 1969 established in Witzieshoek Basotho Ba Borwa Territorial Authority ( territorial authority ).

With the Proclamation 112 of October 25, 1974 the Homeland November 1, 1974, transferred the government. It was designated QwaQwa. The Legislative Assembly had 20 members. As a result QwaQwa related financial benefit from the South African government.

In February 1975, Tsiame Kenneth Mopeli Chief Minister ( such as: " Chief Minister "). He belonged to the Dikwankwetla Party and led QwaQwa until 1994. On 3 December 1987, the township of Botshabelo, which is around 200 kilometers south near Bloemfontein, part QwaQwas, so that its population nearly doubled.

On 27 April 1994 QwaQwa was pooled together with the nine other homelands again with South Africa. In the general election the Dikwankwetla Party received 0.1 percent of the vote. Today the area is part of the municipality of Maluti a Phofung in the Free State Province.

Demography

In QwaQwa lived more than 180,000 Basotho, after annexation Botshabelos around 288,000.

Economy

Most residents drove subsistence farming. The extraction of construction materials, brick and furniture industries played a certain economic role. Many residents had income from migrant labor in other parts of South Africa.