Orange Free State (province)

Province of the Orange Free State Provinsie Oranje-Vrystaat (Afrikaans)
Province of South Africa
1910–1994
Coat of arms
The OFS as it was by 1994
Capital	Bloemfontein
Area
• 1991	129,825 km2 (50,126 sq mi)
Population
• 1991	2,193,062[1]
• Type	Orange Free State Provincial Council
History
• Established	31 May 1910
• Disestablished	27 April 1994
Preceded by Succeeded by Orange River Colony Free State
Today part of	South Africa

The Province of the Orange Free State (Afrikaans: Provinsie Oranje-Vrystaat), commonly referred to as the Orange Free State (Afrikaans: Oranje-Vrystaat), Free State (Afrikaans: Vrystaat) or by its abbreviation OFS, was one of the four provinces of South Africa from 1910 to 1994. After 27 April 1994 it was dissolved following the first non-racial election in South Africa. It is now called the Free State Province.

Its predecessor was the Orange River Colony which in 1902 had replaced the Orange Free State, a Boer republic.

Its outside borders were the same as those of the modern Free State Province; except for the bantustans ("homelands") of QwaQwa and one part of Bophuthatswana, which were contained on land inside of the provincial Orange Free State borders.