Odendaalsrus is a small gold mining town in the Lejweleputswa District Municipality in the goldfields of the Free State province of South Africa.. It is the oldest such town in the district.
The town started out in 1912 as a ramshackle collection of farms and a central church that became a town. In April 1946, gold was struck on the farm Geduld near the town. This discovery was mentioned in Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country.
On 5 December 2000, Odendaalrus was incorporated into the Matjhabeng Local Municipality along with the city of Welkom and the towns of Hennenman, Virginia, Allanridge, and Ventersburg.
Odendaalsrus celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012, it is a town located on the Goldfields close to a couple of mines, and a large Harcos farm producing chickens and eggs.
About 10 km from Odendaalsrus, the Kutlwanong location was set up to accommodate black people during the apartheid era. Water was sold to the people from a privately owned well, because the village suffered from perpetual water shortage.
