BOOK EXTRACT | Homeland formation followed intense duels by two influential chiefs

The year 1959 marked a significant moment in Lucas Mangope’s budding leadership journey.

He had barely ascended the throne of the Bahurutshe-Boo-Manyane in Motswedi when the prospects of a move away from the peripherality of traditional headship towards a career in mainstream politics stretched out before him in a panoramic vista.

That year, the Hendrik Verwoerd administration had seemingly grown impatient with the pace at which the move to throw natives out of mainland South Africa under the guise of so-called self-government was being implemented.

Apparently underwhelmed by the progress registered in the roll-out of the Bantu Authorities Act (BAA), the government raised the stakes with the introduction of the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (PBSA).

An extension of the BAA, the PBSA established ‘Bantu homelands’ out of what up to that point had been known as ‘reserves’. Each of the eight (later ten) homelands were to enjoy token self-government.

The idea was that, in no time, the homelands would be granted independence – the final phase in the government’s persevering quest to strip African natives of their South African citizenship.

For the Motswedi Bahurutshe-Boo-Manyane, the effect of the enforcement of the PBSA was that, increasingly, their kgosi’s focus would become split between administering community affairs and the alluring potential of scaling the peaks of political prominence.

Naturally, the latter was more enticing to Mangope than the former. It provided him with a golden opportunity to use the stolen throne he had inherited from his late father as a launching pad to propel himself into the hallowed corridors of political power, albeit on a rather uninviting side of history.

To make it in the cut-throat world of politics, some degree of a ruthless, cunning and shrewd personality would prove non-negotiable. Seemingly, the 46-year-old was equal to the task. Over the course of the 18-year journey to the independence of Bophuthatswana, he would find himself having to outfox one rival after another as he slowly worked his way up the rungs of homeland politics. But the all-conquering Mangope’s political breakout would come in late 1977 when he reached the finish line well ahead of his opponents, preparing to lead the homeland to supposed autonomy amid resounding disapproval from the global community.

His odyssey from kgosi in just another rural village to political heavy hitter, rubbing shoulders with the ruling elites of Pretoria, dawned in 1961 when the Tswana Territorial Authority (TTA) was established. The TTA was made up of representatives of the 12 regional authorities of the Batswana. Mangope was among the dozen, representing the Zeerust Regional Authority.

Run by an executive committee, the TTA was chaired by Kgosi Tidimane Pilane of the Bakgatla-Ba-Ga-Kgafela in Pilanesberg outside Rustenburg, with Mangope as his second-in-command.

In 1965, a motion pushing for the self-government of the Batswana was tabled before the TTA. The previous year, a similar motion had failed after the sponsor withdrew it. The 1965 motion, however, was successful, resulting in a resolution mandating the executive committee to convene a special session on self-government.

This session had to follow a consultation with MDC de Wet Nel, the Bantu administration and development minister. During the consultation with De Wet Nel on 20 November 1965, the executive committee was assured that the Batswana would soon follow in the footsteps of Transkei which had led the way, acquiring self-government in 1963.

Two years after the successful consultation with De Wet Nel, in 1966, the matter of self-government yet again came to the fore in the TTA. It was in those deliberations that Mangope faced his first hurdle in his path to power. He differed publicly with his senior, Pilane, on the ideal approach the Batswana should take on self-government. Up to that point, the two men had been of the same mind. Cracks were beginning to show. While Pilane agitated for the immediate granting of self-governance to the Batswana, Mangope dissented, making known his preference for a cautious approach.

Although it seemed to be an innocent difference of opinion, the discord would snowball into a bitter, decades-long grudge between the TTA’s top two, later spawning two rival political parties – the Mangope-led Bophuthatswana National Party (BNP) and Pilane’s Seoposengwe Party (SP).

Towards the late 1960s, the TTA introduced sweeping reforms dubbed ‘administrative decentralisation’ that would see a total overhaul of the governance structure of the Batswana. The reforms, which were rolled out in December 1968, saw the amendment of the TTA constitution and the promulgation of new regulations for tribal and regional authorities. Under this regime, members of the TTA were to elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson who would be speaker and deputy speaker, respectively. They were also to elect a chief councillor and five councillors who would make up an executive council. The chief councillor, a role to which Mangope would be elected, would chair the executive council. These changes came with the establishment of the departments of Authority Affairs and Finance; Community Affairs, Works, Education and Culture; and Agriculture and Justice. Members of the executive council took charge of the departments. Authority Affairs and Finance was to be Mangope’s portfolio as chief councillor.

But not everyone was pleased with the development.

Critics saw this as granting the Batswana administrative rather than political power. And so, in 1970, Pilane tabled a motion for self-government. In terms of the motion, such self-government had to be realised by 1973. Consequently, further reforms were introduced in 1971, with the Tswana Legislative Assembly (TLA) replacing the TTA.

As its name suggested, the TLA had the authority to make laws. It was to be made up of 48 members nominated by the constituent regional authorities and 24 elected members, with each of the territory’s dozen districts supplying a pair of members. In addition to the TLA, a constitutional committee was established that year and tasked with putting together a constitution, which was to come into effect once the Batswana had been granted self-government.

The committee also had to recommend to the TLA the name by which the territory was to be called and a flag. In 1972, the committee reported. 

Following protracted deliberations on the name of the territory, its flag and its constitution in the TLA, an agreement was reached. State President Jim Fouché was engaged to declare the territory, Bophuthatswana, a self-governing entity to be governed in terms of the new constitution.

Accordingly, on 1 June 1972, Bophuthatswana became a self-governing territory. It was granted a flag and an anthem. In addition, Setswana became the third official language after Afrikaans and English. These changes also saw the executive council being substituted by a cabinet made up of a chief minister and five other ministers. The TLA was to elect the chief minister, who, in turn, had to nominate the other members of the cabinet.

This would see a fierce contest between Pilane and Mangope as their political parties – the SP, launched on 29 July 1972, and the BNP, founded in Mahikeng on 5 August 1972 – squared off in a popular vote to lay claim to the levers of power.

Whereas the SP campaigned on the idea of self-governance as a measure to prepare the ground for the promotion of the coming together of all black people in South Africa, the BNP leaned more towards Tswana nationalism, and later a federal South Africa.

This an extract from Lucas Mangope: A Life, by journalist Oupa Segalwe. He describes the book as an incisive examination of the public and private life of the traditional-leader-cum-elected politician, whose rise and fall coincided with the collapse of apartheid and that of the ill-advised homelands project.