Free State

With agriculture central to the economy, the Free State is said to be the ‘granary of South Africa’, yet the mining of the goldfields region – a gold reef more than 400 km long is the main employer  and accounts for almost a third of South Africa’s gold output. The local economy has however diversified away from the primary sector towards manufacturing and export. The province is divided into five district municipalities, which is subdivided into 20 local municipalities.