Mmabatho (Setswana for "Mother of the People") is the former capital of the North-West Province of South Africa. In the apartheid era, it was the capital of the former "Bantustan" of Bophuthatswana. Following the end of apartheid in 1994, Bophuthatswana was integrated into the newly established North-West Province and Mmabatho was proclaimed the provincial capital. However, Mmabatho status as the provincial capital was short-lived. Later in 1994, the North West provincial legislature voted to rename the capital to Mafikeng (the town of Mafikeng having been merged with Mmabatho in 1980 and treated as a suburb of Mmabatho between 1980 and 1994  [1], reducing Mmabatho to a suburb of Mafikeng.