The Lejweleputswa District Municipality (; ; ) is one of the 5 districts of the Free State province of South Africa. The seat of the municipality is Welkom. As of 2011, a majority of its 657,019 residents speak Sotho. The district code is DC18. Lejweleputswa is a Sesotho word meaning "grey rock".
Neighbours
Lejweleputswa is surrounded by: Dr Kenneth Kaunda in North West to the north (DC40) Fezile Dabi to the north-east (DC20) Thabo Mofutsanyane to the south-east (DC19) Mangaung Metro to the south Xhariep to the south-west (DC16) Frances Baard in Northern Cape to the west (DC9) Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati in North West to the north-west (DC39)
Local municipalities
The district contains the following local municipalities:
Local municipalityPopulation%Dominant languageMatjhabeng 408 156 62.12%SothoNala 98 264 14.96%SothoMasilonyana 64 402 9.80%SothoTswelopele 53 713 8.18%SothoTokologo 32 455 4.94%Tswana
Demographics The following statistics are from the 2001 census.
LanguagePopulation%Sotho 403 866 61.47%Xhosa 99 455 15.14%Afrikaans 66 418 10.11%Tswana 50 835 7.74%Zulu 11 051 1.68%English 7 981 1.21%Tsonga 6 371 0.97%Ndebele 4 283 0.65%Swati 2 369 0.36%Other2 141 0.33%Northern Sotho 1 666 0.25%Venda 554 0.08%
Gender GenderPopulation%Female 335 378 51.05%Male 321 641 48.95%
Ethnic group Ethnic groupPopulation%Black African 586 657 89.29%White 56 640 8.62%Coloured 13 179 2.01%Indian/Asian 543 0.08%
Age AgePopulation%000 - 004 62 795 9.56%005 - 009 63 350 9.64%010 - 014 70 582 10.74%015 - 019 70 068 10.66%020 - 024 59 737 9.09%025 - 029 55 793 8.49%030 - 034 53 328 8.12%035 - 039 54 193 8.25%040 - 044 46 564 7.09%045 - 049 36 013 5.48%050 - 054 25 801 3.93%055 - 059 17 994 2.74%060 - 064 14 175 2.16%065 - 069 10 978 1.67%070 - 074 6 841 1.04%075 - 079 3 991 0.61%080 - 084 3 014 0.46%085 - 089 1 111 0.17%090 - 094 432 0.07%095 - 099 171 0.03%100 plus 88 0.01%
Politics Election results Election results for Lejweleputswa in the South African general election, 2004. Population 18 and over: 418 466 [63.69% of total population] Total votes: 234 060 [35.62% of total population] Voting % estimate: 55.93% votes as a % of population 18 and over PartyVotes%African National Congress 195 970 83.73% Democratic Alliance 20 043 8.56% Freedom Front Plus 3 774 1.61% United Democratic Movement 3 016 1.29% African Christian Democratic Party 2 806 1.20% Pan African Congress 2 387 1.02% New National Party 1 779 0.76% Inkhata Freedom Party 947 0.40% Independent Democrats 903 0.39% Azanian People's Organisation 816 0.35% United Christian Democratic Party 432 0.18% SOPA 283 0.12% NA 195 0.08% CDP 132 0.06% EMSA 131 0.06% UF 125 0.05% PJC 111 0.05% TOP 79 0.03% KISS 50 0.02% NLP 42 0.02% Minority Front 39 0.02% Total 234 060 100.00%
Corruption In August 2025, the ANC Provincial Executive Committee resolved to fire all its leaders in underperforming local municipality to address governance failures, corruption, and service delivery challenges ahead of the 2026 local elections. Lejweleputsa was one of those affected.
References
External links Lejweleputswa DM Official Website