Botshabelo, meaning "a place of refuge", is a large township set up in 1979 by the then apartheid government 45 km east of Bloemfontein in the present-day Free State province of South Africa. Botshabelo situated on the N8 road (South Africa) road and is the second-largest township in South Africa. The population comprises mainly people who speak Southern Sotho and Xhosa. The township had over 350 000 inhabitants as of the 2001 census.