Free State

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Free State
Vrystaat
Foreistata

Capital

Bloemfontein

Largest city

Bloemfontein

Premier

Beatrice Marshoff (ANC)

Area
- Total

Ranked 3rd
129,480 km²

Population
- Total (2001)
- Density

Ranked 8th
2,706,776
21/km²

Languages

Sotho (62%)
Afrikaans (14%)
Xhosa (9.5%)

Ethnic composition

Black (88.0%)
Caucasian (8.8%)
Coloured (3.1%)
Asian (0.1%)

edit

This article is about the South African province.
For other uses, see Free state (disambiguation)

The Free State is a province of South Africa. The name is a popular contraction of the previous name the Orange Free State. Its capital is Bloemfontein which is also South Africa's judicial capital. On 9 June 1995 its name was changed from Orange Free State to Free State. The current borders date from 1994 when the Bantustans were abolished and included into the provinces of South Africa.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Language
4 References

[edit] History

See Orange Free State.

[edit] Geography

Free State districts and local municipalities: Northern Free State (pale green), Thabo Mofutsanyane (blue), Motheo (pink), Xhariep (cyan), Lejweleputswa (yellow)

The Free State is situated on flat boundless plains in the heart of South Africa. The rich soil and pleasant climate allow a thriving agricultural industry. With more than thirty thousand farms, which produce over 70% of the country's grain, it is known locally as South Africa's breadbasket. It also has some of the most productive gold and diamond mines in the world.

[edit] District municipalities

The Free State is divided into five district municipalities (districts). These are again subdivided into three to five local municipalities each, for a total of 20 local municipalities.

The five districts are:

Northern Free State in the north
Thabo Mofutsanyane in the east
Motheo in the south-east
Xhariep in the south
Lejweleputswa in the north-west

[edit] Major towns

The major towns include:

Bloemfontein in Motheo
Bethlehem in Thabo Mofutsanyane
Welkom and Sasolburg in Northern Free State
Kroonstad in Lejweleputswa

See also List of cities and towns in the Free State

[edit] Borders

In the southeast, the Free State borders seven districts of Lesotho:

Mokhotlong - farthest to the east
Butha-Buthe - northwest of Mokhotlong and northeast of Leribe
Leribe - southwest of Butha-Buthe and northeast of Berea
Berea - southwest of Leribe and north of Maseru
Maseru - south of Berea and northeast of Mafeteng
Mafeteng - southwest of Maseru and northwest of Mohale's Hoek
Mohale's Hoek - southeast of Mafeteng

Domestically, it borders the following provinces:

KwaZulu-Natal - east
Eastern Cape - south
Northern Cape - west
North West - northwest
Gauteng - north
Mpumalanga - northeast

The Free State borders more districts of Lesotho and more provinces of South Africa than any other province.

[edit] Language

Map showing predominant home languages in the province.

Sesotho is the dominant home language in most of the province. Afrikaans dominates in the south-west and in parts of the towns. isiZulu is the major language in the eastern municipality of Phumelela. Setswana is the main langauage in Tokologo (west).