Phuthaditjhaba (formerly known as Witsieshoek) is a town in the Free State province of South Africa.
The town is located in a section of the Drakensberg mountains (Maloti in the Sesotho language). It borders the province of KwaZulu-Natal to the south east and Lesotho to the south west.
The name of this town is Sotho and it means “Meeting Place of the Nations”. The ancient San people called this region Qwa-Qwa which means “whiter than white” because the mountain peaks frequently had snow on it. Since apartheid was abolished in the country in 1994, Phuthaditjhaba has become an energetic town in the eastern region of the Free State.
Phuthaditjhaba is the urban centre of Qwaqwa and serves as the administrative head office of Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality and Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality.
Surrounding Phuthaditjhaba are the rural villages of Qwaqwa, established on tribal land administered by the Department of Land Affairs.
