Its SouthAfrica

Officially, Motheo is one of the five districts of the Free State in South Africa. The term ‘Motheo’ comes from the Sesotho for “foundation” or “cornerstone” and was consciously chosen to represent the heartbeat of the province, regarded as an area of entrepreneurial and investment opportunities and the centre of the economic and industrial development of the Free State.

The three municipalities of Mangaung, Mantsopa and Naledi fall within Motheo and include the city of Bloemfontein and other towns like Ladybrand, Hobhouse, Tweespruit, Wepener, Dewetsdorp, Thaba Phatswa.

Motheo incorporates the highlands of the Maluti Route, the R26, which winds through Naledi, and the township of Botshabelo, 55 kilometres from Bloemfontein - the largest township in the province and the second largest in the country after Soweto.

Bloemfontein is without doubt the main attraction of Motheo. Marketed as an “outdoor mecca” by the city’s tourism, Bloemfontein is filled with history and myriad outdoor activities. From President Brand Street in the middle of town where the statue of President Brand stands in front of the National Afrikaans Literature Museum, along a street lined with stone building that date back to the 1800s, to the Botanical Gardens and Oliewenhuis Museum, there is plenty to do in the city.

The other attraction included in Motheo, 60 kilometres east of Bloemfontein, is Thaba ‘Nchu, a town established as early as 1873 that was granted independence in 1979 and then reincorporated in 1994, but not before it become the site of a casino complex - one of the main reasons that Bloemfontein residents regularly visit the largely Tswana and Sotho dominated town.