The MaKholokoe are a subset of the Kgatla (Bakgatla ba Mmakau) and descend from Morena Khetsi, son of Morena Tabane. The Kholokoe people are historically found in the eastern Free State (Harrismith, Wetsieshoek, Vrede, Kestel, Deneysville, etc.), KwaZulu-Natal (in Nqutu), Mpumalanga (Daggakraal, Amersfoort), Greylingstad, Northwest, Gauteng and in Lesotho. They are the descendants of Bakgatla Chief Tabane and Princess Mathulare, daughter of the Bafokeng Chief.
Tabane fathered five sons: Diale, Kgetsi, Kgwadi (Motlôkwa), Matsiboho, and Mosia (in order of their birth). Each son broke away from the Bakgatla tribe to form their own group: Pedi (Bapedi), the Kholokoe, Batlôkwa, Maphuthing, and Basia, respectively.
The Kholokoe tribe has linguistic and cultural characteristics that distinguish them from other Bantu speakers of southern Africa. Their language shows a merger of South Sotho and Nguni languages. They also practice totemism (the Kholokoe tribe totem is the Duiker (Phuti), but some still hold on to the fowl, while others the porcupine), the preferential marriage of paternal cousins, and an architectural style characterized by a round hut with a conical thatch roof.
The senior house of the Kholokoe tribe is the house of Moduli/Molupi, son of Mokete. They are the Makholokoe a Letseba, which means "the secret that was known by Mokholoane, who died without revealing it." Tabane's first son from his senior wife, Matlaisane, remained with the Bakgatla ba Motšha group.[1][2] After Tabane concurred with the Venda, he married a Venda wife and fathered a son called Vele.