The frequent snow on the Drakensberg mountain peaks surrounding the town led the San to call the region QwaQwa (whiter than white).

The Afrikaners named the town Witsieshoek in honour of Oetse (also spelled Witsie and Wetsi), a Makholokoe chief who lived there from 1839 to 1856.

[3] The area was historically inhabited by bantu clans of the South Sotho, namely the Makholokoe, Bataung, Bakoena and the Batlokoa.

The Orange Free State government settled these people there in the 1870s after concluding a peace settlement with their leaders.

When the apartheid system was abolished in South Africa in 1994, it became part of the Free State province.