Dinokana is a town situated along the N4 National Route in the North West Province of South Africa, approximately 26.8 km north-west of Zeerust.
Dinokana falls within the Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality under the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality of the North West Province.
History
The area became the main town of the Bahurutshe in 1849, when Kgosi Moiloa I settled it with about 1,500 people, who had been displaced following the Difaqane war. Moiloa was accompanied by the Reverend Walter Inglis of the London Missionary Society.
In 1875, a succession dispute in the aftermath of Moiloa’s death led to the displacement of many BaHurutshe, and nearly half of the population moved to Gopane.
Anti-apartheid history
Dinokana was the centre of the Bahurutshe resistance of the 1950s. Kgosi Abram Ramotshere Moiloa was banished by the Apartheid Government in 1957 after he refused to enforce the carrying of passbooks by Hurutshe women as obliged by apartheid law.
The women of Dinokana had largely refused to carry the passbooks, and Kgosi Moiloa had supported their decision. At the first meeting held by the native commissioner, 1,000 women gathered but only 70 passbooks were taken out, Kgosi Moiloa was deposed a week later.
Better known as the Zeerust uprising or the Hurutshe revolt, a popular uprising engulfed Lehurutshe in reaction to the punitive actions of the apartheid state, led particularly by the women of Lehurutse.
Bophuthatswana
In the 1980s, while the town was part of Bophuthatswana, a number of agricultural schemes were started close to Dinokana, and the town of Lehurutshe was built about 10 km away to resettle some of the villagers.
