Vryheid is a coal mining and cattle ranching town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Vryheid is Afrikaans for "freedom" or "liberty".

After British and Boer mercenaries had helped Dinizulu defeat his rival Usibepu for succession of the Zulu throne, land and farming rights were granted along the banks of the Mfolozi River . On August 5 1884 the mercenaries formed the Niewe Republiek (New Republick) with the capital Vryheid. At the end of the Boer War the republic was absorbed into Natal.