Kokstad is a town in the Sisonke District of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Kokstad is named after the Griqua chief Adam Kok III who settled here in 1863. Stad is the Afrikaans word for city.

The town is built on the outer slopes of the Drakensberg and is 1,302 m above the sea level. Behind it Mount Currie rises to a height of 2,224 m. It is a centre for cheese and other dairy products.

In 1860 the Griqua tribe which lived in Griquatown split and under the leadership of Adam Kok III, descendent of the ex-cook who established the tribe, one section first moved to Philippolis (southern Free State) then in 1861 2000 Griquas moved across the Drakensberg to the vicinity of the modern Kokstad. They named the mountain where they settled Mount Currie after Sir Walter Currie who gave support to their effort to settle here. Land on the steep mountain slope where given to the Griquas in exchange for a diamond mine. Every male Griqua was allocated a farm of at least 12 square kilometres, but most of them sold their estates and squandered the money. When, in 1869, the Reverend William Dower was asked by the Griqua to establish a mission, he agreed on condition that they resettle in a more suitable place on the banks of the Mzimhlava river . The town was built at this location. In 1874 it came into the possession of Cape Colony. The first hotel in town, The Royal, was opened by an African-American who also started a newspaper (Kokstad Advertiser) in 1881. Kokstad became a municipality in 1892. 1904 the population was recorded at 2903 whom a third were Griquas.