In Tswana, place of the Tlharo people. The word Batlharo literally derives from Motlhware, which is the Setswana name for the wild olive tree.
History
Batlharos is the original centre of the Batlharo Tswana group. They were an early off-shoot of the baHuruhtshe, probably in the later 1500s, when a group of young men and their wives left the Huruhutshe secretly, and travelled westwards, to the Kuruman and Molopo rivers. The original name of this tribe is ba ga Motlhware, which was changed over time to baTlhware and baTlharo. The name Motlhware came from a mothlware tree, where they camped on their first name. They became the neighbours of the baTlhaping (PL Breutz, The Tribes of the Districts of Kuruman and Postmasburg, 1963, p. 92). Their first chief was Maele, probably born between 1600 to 1640. In 1878, the baTlharo settled at Seoding, near Kuruman. The Tlharo communities are extensive, and include the Langeberg (Olifantshoek area), and Vryburg region. The most famous Tlharo chief was Toto, who was captured during the Langeberg rebellion in 1897, and died in exile on Robben Island in 1901. His grandson, Robayane Toto was born in 1910, and appointed as chief by the government in 1945, and lived at Batlharos in the GaMotlhware traditional area (Breutz 1963, p. 89).
