Central Region Map

Location

Lehurutshe lies in the north- eastern area of the North West Province. Mafikeng is the capital of the province, but the important regiona towns of Zeerust, Dinokana & Lehurutshe also serve the District.

History

The border between South Africa and Botswana divides the traditional Batswana land. Between 1977 and 1994, the area was part of former Bophuthatswana, independent of South Africa.

Climate

Dry climate (500-600mm/year), with regular droughts.

People

The majority of the people in the district belong to the Bahurutshe group, one of the main branches of the Sotho-Tswana people.Traditional authorities still play an important role in rural villages.

Livelihood

Centred on livestock breeding, with rainfed crop farming and small gardens. Maize is the staple crop grown. Migrant work, remittances and petty trade form a significant part of livelihood activity.

Environment

The area has rolling hills that are a mosaic of sourish mixed bushveld and farmland, and dry tuft thornveld on the slopes. Some rural areas suffer water shortages and land degradation.

LEHURUTSHE

History

The ancestors of the Tswana-speaking people started moving into the Lehurutshe area many centuries ago. The majority of the inhabitants of Lehurutshe belong to the BaHurutshe group, one of the main branches of the Sotho-Tswana people.

The South African central highveld was destabilised, both politically and economically, from the mid-eighteenth century, in an event known as the Difaqane.

This period of uncertainty reached a climax in the 1820's and 1830's with the invasion of Nguni speaking people onto the highveld, and the physical displacement of thousands of Sotho-Tswana speaking communities.

These people were totally unprepared for the arrival of the Voortrekkers (Boers participating in the Great Trek). Both were pastoral and agricultural societies. Both needed to recover after the equally disturbing periods of the Difaqane and the Great Trek respectively.

The frontier of the Voortrekker expansion was a volatile region as both the Boers and the local African people wanted to gain control over important resources, particularly land and workers. White farmers occupied most of what was then the Marico district during and after the Great Trek period.

This situation made for a competitive and potentially hostile relationship between the two groups. Yet as a number of works on the history of the former Transvaal have shown, there were also times when Boers and Africans co-operated and worked together.

After 1910 parts of the area became a "native reserve" and later, during the apartheid era, it became one of the blocks of the former Tswana homeland.

During the 1950’s the Lehurutshe district was at the forefront of the resistance to the apartheid laws, especially the hated passbook system.

Lehurutshe falls in an area previously known as the Dinokana Reserve. It was created in 1970 for black people who were removed from white areas. The town fell under the jurisdiction of the independent territory of the former Bophuthatswana. Attempts were made to develop this new town, but most inhabitants still had to travel to nearby Zeerust (South Africa) in search for work.

Until 1994 Lehurutshe was part of the former Bophuthatswana which means 'the place where the Tswana meet'. Bophuthatswana gained self-governing status in 1971 and independence in 1977, although a debate concerning the definite borderlines (the so-called consolidation) continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The Braklaagte community, for instance, struggled against becoming part of the then Bophuthatswana in the late 1980s.

Mainly Tswana people from the Bahurutshe family live in the district itself (hence the name 'Lehurutshe'). The people orient themselves after villages, for instance the Bahurutshe ba ga Suping.

Towns Central Region

Also In Central Region

THE PROVINCE