Bothaville is a maize farming town situated near the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Oce ...

in the Lejweleputswa DM of the Free State province,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is situated 60 km east of the Vaal, on the bank of its Vals River tributary. Bothaville and the adjacent Kgotsong township have a total of approximately 46,000 residents. The indigenous

Sesotho Sotho (), also known as ''Sesotho'' (), Southern Sotho, or ''Sesotho sa Borwa'' is a Southern Bantu languages, Southern Bantu language spoken in Lesotho as its national language and South Africa where it is an official language. Like all Ba ...

name for the town is Mophate, which is the name of a clay pot used when traveling.

History

A 'church town', Botharnia, was established in 1891 on a portion of Gladdedrift farm, by Voortrekker JP van Wyk who left

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

after religious persecution. The town was renamed Bothaville in 1893, after Theunis Louis Botha, the original owner of the farm. The Battle of Doornkraal took place some distance south of town on 6 November 1900. Doornkraal Monument is a granite memorial built in honour of Boers who died here in the surprise attack by British soldiers. Some of the Boer soldiers were buried in a communal grave. The town received municipal status in 1914. It was recently amalgamated into the Nala Local Municipality, along with Wesselsbron and a part of the Vetvaal rural council.

Wall of Remembrance

In NAMPO Park lies the Wall of Remembrance, a monument erected in 2007, in remembrance of all the commercial farmers and farm-workers who have died in farm-murders in South Africa since May 1961. The memorial consists of nine pillars, representing each province, and a statue of a farmer holding a Bible.

Agriculture

Bothaville lies in the centre of the ''maize triangle'', thus surrounded by vast maizelands, some irrigated from the Vals and

s. Other agricultural activities are

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

NAMPO Harvest Day

The NAMPO agricultural trade show, known as "Nampo Harvest Day" or "Nampo Oesdag", has been held annually at Bothaville since 1974. Described as one of the largest in the world, it attracted some 70,000 visitors in recent years. It is held in the middle week of May at Nampo Park just north of town. The show, organised by Grain South Africa (GSA), features a large variety of agricultural machinery and livestock.

Notes

External links

Bothaville Maize Capital

{{Authority control Populated places in the Nala Local Municipality Populated places established in 1889