Jim Day
LUCAS Mangope is campaigning hard for a political comeback in the former Bophuthatswana, but so far his support base appears limited to the rural elderly and some disgruntled civil servants.
He took time out on Tuesday to face a scolding by the Tebbutt Commission, but for the rest of the time Mangope is out delivering his anti-ANC message to a small but growing audience.
“I’m not saying he may come back to power, but he’s making inroads,” said Andrew Matheba, a lecturer in political science at the University of the North-West. “He’s taken seriously. When he was here, people had jobs. Crime was low. And he’s aware of people’s disillusionment [with the ANC].”
Matheba boiled Mangope’s message down to a simple line: “You toppled me, but now you’re having a wretched life.” Matheba says the message is resonating with a growing number of people who think the current government has failed to deliver on its promises.
The idea of a Mangope resurgence does not sit well on campus, which was a focal point of the 1994 unrest that marked the end of Mangope’s rule.
“He has no place now in South Africa,” said one student, who dismissed Mangope’s support base as limited to “old women” from rural areas.
One such old woman, parked at the MegaCity shopping centre, recalled the benefits Mangope had brought to Bophuthatswana. He had built shopping centres, she said. A civil servant talked of the former leader’s development of education and sport.
Mangope probably could not return to rule, but he could play a role in an opposition movement, suggested a civil servant, who did not want his name used. It may be how Mangope sees himself. He will attend Bantu Holomisa’s June conference to discuss the creation of a new political party. The word is he asked to be invited.
The prospect of such an alliance was greeted with scepticism by many. Law student Abelsom Matebesi said Mangope would diminish Holomisa’s support. Others spoke of an inevitable personality clash.
For a comeback to succeed, Mangope would have to overcome the deep distrust of most of the population of the North-West. As China Monyadi, imprisoned by Mangope’s regime for five years after the failed 1988 attempt to overthrow the president, said, “Things are different now … This is no longer the time for Mangope.”