Kokstad is a town in the Harry Gwala District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Kokstad is named after the Griqua chief Adam Kok III who settled here in 1863. Stad is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for city.The town is built on the outer slopes of the Drakensberg and is 1,302 m above the sea level. Behind it Mount Currie rises to a height of 2,224 m. It is a centre for cheese and other dairy products.Kokstad is currently the fastest growing town in KwaZulu-Natal, with approximately 50,000 people residing there.HistoryIn 1820 the Griqua tribe which lived in Griquatown split and under the leadership of Adam Kok III, descendant of the ex-cook who established the tribe, one section first moved to Philippolis . In 1861 several hundred Griquas moved across the Drakensberg down the Ongeluks Nek to the vicinity of modern Kokstad. They moved because of the growing confrontation they faced with the Voortrekkers who had moved north of the Orange River to escape the laws of the British. The Voortrekkers, largely Dutch, secured leases over Griqua land and then refused to return the land at the end of the lease. The big hole of Kimberley was at the centre of controversy over one such lease.
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