Phuthaditjhaba, is a town in the Free State province of South Africa. It is located in a section of the Drakensberg mountains. It borders the province of KwaZulu-Natal to the south east and the independent country of Lesotho to the south west. The town was capital of the bantustan, or homeland, of QwaQwa. When apartheid ended, the town became part of the Free State province.

The Free State, formerly known as the Orange Free State, is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Boer republic called the Orange Free State and later the Orange Free State Province.