Mantsopa Local Municipality is a local municipality in the Thabo Mofutsanyana District of the Free State in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

Origin of the name

Basotho prophet ‘Mantsopa Makhetha was a cousin to King

Moshoeshoe I Moshoeshoe I () ( – 11 March 1870) was the first king of Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage, a branch of the Koena (crocodile) clan. In his youth, he helped his father gain power over so ...

, who banished her from the Kingdom when he suspected that her powers were greater than his. When she arrived at

Modderpoort Modderpoort, also known as ''Lekhalong la Bo Tau'' or ‘The Pass of the Lions’, is the site in the eastern Free State, South Africa, where the Anglican Missionary Brotherhood, the Brotherhood of St Augustine of Hippo, was established by Bisho ...

there were no houses and, according to legend, she stayed in a cave. In 1886 a group of men called The Brotherhood of St Augustine arrived at Modderpoort, and ‘Mantsopa accommodated them in her cave. The missionaries decided to stay and they turned the cave into a chapel. ‘Mantsopa later joined the church and was baptised and given the name Anna. ‘Mantsopa's grave continues to be visited and offerings are still placed on or near it.

Main places

The 2001 census divided the municipality into the following main places:

Politics

The municipal council consists of eighteen members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Nine councillors are elected by

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in nine wards, while the remaining nine are chosen from

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

s so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 1 November 2021 the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) won a majority of eleven seats on the council. The following table shows the results of the election.

References

External links

* http://www.mantsopa.fs.gov.za/ {{coord, 29, 11, 40, S, 27, 27, 22, E, region:ZA_type:adm3rd_source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title Local municipalities of the Thabo Mofutsanyane District Municipality