Category: Surname meaning & origin Page 9 of 789

The Bahurutshe are said to be one of the branches of the Bakwena (sometimes called Bakone). This tribe, it appears, moved from north to south. Traditional accounts say that after crossing the Oodi (Limpopo) River, it broke up into many offshoots which spread out and lived in different places under different tribal names.

Phofhu is said to have been the greatest and the most famous of their chiefs
since they settled south of the Limpopo.

In direct line from Phofhu was descended Malope who was the twelfth chief (of the Bakwena) from Phofhu.
One account says that Malope had two children – a daughter, Lehurutshe, the eldest by the first wife, and a son Kwena by the second wife.
After Malope’s death, a split occurred in the tribe.

Some of the Bakone encouraged Lehurutshe toclaim the chieftainship, for, though a woman, she was the daughter of the senior wife; but most would not be ruled by a woman when there was a male. This quarrel led to a split. Lehurutshe, at the head of a considerable following, left the capital Majanamatshwana and went to live in Tsoenyane, then known as Lesosong, now the town of Heidelberg.

On their way to Lesosong they went through a pass of the Mokgana Mountains (Magaliesberg). So they must have lived north of Magaliesberg. In later years they removed from Lesosong, crossed Kokotsi (Witwatersrand), and settled in the Madiko (Marico) VaHey.

The followers of Princess Lehurutshe were then named Bahurutshe after her and those of K wena were called Bakwena.
Another account, however, says Malope had four sons, by four different wives
– Mohurutshe, Kwena, Ngwato, Ngwaketse. Mohurutshe, the heir apparent,
rebelled against his father, left the capital, and founded his own independent
kingdom. From that time his subjects were known as Bahurutshe, after their chief Mohurutshe I.

Evidently the name Bahurutshe derives either from Lehurutshe or
Mohurutshe. The Bahurutshe only use Lehurutshe as the name of the tribal area, never as a personal name.