Molefe

History and Origins

Molefe is a Sotho and Tswana clan name (sefika or totem name) with origins in the pre-colonial societies of the highveld — the great grasslands of what is now Gauteng, the Free State, North West Province, and into Botswana and Lesotho. In Sotho-Tswana tradition, as in Zulu tradition, the clan name carries both genealogical and spiritual significance, connecting people to ancestral lines and totem animals or natural features.

The Basotho and Batswana peoples who carry the Molefe name were among the groups most severely affected by the Difaqane (the Sotho name for the upheaval also known as the Mfecane) of the 1820s–1830s, when competing military states destabilised much of the interior. Many Molefe families dispersed during this period, and their descendants are now found far from the original clan heartlands.

Through the 20th century, Molefe families moved to the Witwatersrand goldfields in large numbers, and the surname is now extremely common in Gauteng townships. It is also found throughout Botswana (where Molefe is a significant family name) and Lesotho.

Notable Molefe Bearers

• Popo MolefeSouth African anti-apartheid activist, UDF leader, and later Premier of North West Province
• Cyril MolefeSouth African journalist and editor
• Beki MolefeSouth African trade unionist and community leader

Genealogy Research Guide

South African National Archives in Pretoria holds pass records and native administration files. The Botswana National Archives in Gaborone. The Lesotho National Archives in Maseru. Mission station records from the London Missionary Society and Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, which worked extensively in Sotho-Tswana communities from the 1820s.