The Drakensberg Group lies over most of Lesotho and localities in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Free State provinces of South Africa.

[2] Rifting tectonics in response to the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana are believed to have been the cause for the formation of the Drakensberg Group.

[7] In its entirety, the Karoo Igneous Province represents a vast suite of sedimentary, extrusive and intrusive rocks ranging from 200 - 130 million years in age.

The provinces of the central to southern areas are composed of Titanium - Zirconium low (Ti-Zr) tholeiitic basalt, and andesitic compositions also occur.

In addition, basalt xenoliths of the same chemical structure as the Drakensberg lavas have been found in the Northern Cape within Cretaceous-aged kimberlite pipes (~ 90 Ma) that intruded older rocks of the Karoo Supergroup.