Matlou, Connie Selebogo, Barry Streek and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
After having tracked down the whereabouts of prominent apartheid torturers enjoying life after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the Mail & Guardian went in search of the former regime’s quislings. They were apartheid’s puppets – the people who ran the nominally independent, corrupt homelands central to Pretoria’s grand scheme for racial segregation. Some have managed to survive the changeover and remain on the political stage – a survival dependent on the opportunism and flexibility that has characterised domestic politics since 1994. The rest, however, have retreated into the shadows of the new South Africa.
Lucas Mangope
The crusty homeland leader has defied poor health – and a fraud conviction – to bounce back into politics. After the 1999 general election, he became the sole representative of his United Christian Democratic Party in the North West provincial legislature. He then teamed up with Tony Leon’s Democratic Party – a partnership which gave a taste of Leon’s desire to grow his party at any cost.
Mangope is particularly adept at personalising public assets for himself. He dipped into the proceeds of the Bafokeng platinum mines, stashing the proceeds in some offshore bank accounts. For many years, he chastised his neighbouring cousins, the Batswana, for harbouring African National Congress “terrorists” and enjoying Bophuthatswana Television for free.
Stella Sigcau
The Pondo princess turned Cabinet minister is the daughter of the late Paramount Chief Botha Sigcau, the first state president of the Transkei homeland. She holds the record of being Africa’s first woman prime minister, as well as holding the shortest term in office – 86 days. Sigcau also secured herself a place in the history books for allegedly accepting a hefty bribe from casino magnate Sol Kerzner. She was toppled by General Bantu Holomisa in a bloodless coup in 1987. Holomisa’s revelation of Sigcau’s financial relationship with Kerzner before the TRC triggered the firebrand’s expulsion from the ANC. Sigcau is said to give the ANC access to the rural vote in the former Transkei – apparently the main reason for her survival in the Cabinet, first as minister of public enterprises and then public works.
Prince James Mahlangu
The former chief minister of Kwa-Ndebele made his name bringing about peace in the former homeland after months of political violence between the ANC-aligned United Democratic Front and a government-backed vigilante group, Imbokodo.
Mahlangu has had something of a turbulent political career since 1994, flitting between the ANC and the United Democratic Movement. He was recently appointed to a senior government post in Mpumalanga after defecting back to the ANC from the UDM. Mahlangu secured the post despite having handed the UDM a medical certificate on his departure stating he had brain damage.
He took over the homeland government in 1988, following a victory at the polls for his party, Intando ye Sizwe. Mahlangu dissolved his party before the 1994 elections to join the ANC, and was elected to the party’s National Assembly, resigning in 1997 on the grounds of ill-health.
Brigadier Oupa Gqozo
The diminutive soldier from the Ciskei who toppled the homeland’s Sebe dynasty in a coup in 1990 is remembered for being an insecure and timid military leader during a time of turmoil and political change. He is perhaps best known for being in charge when his soldiers opened fire on a march, led by ANC heavyweights Ronnie Kasrils and Cyril Ramaphosa, in which 29 people were gunned down.
Gqozo currently runs a R20-a-night bed and breakfast in King William’s Town, frequented by truckers and taxi drivers in need of a one-night stand. He recently told a Sunday paper that he “is trying to get out of the ashes … and everybody knows that [Gqozo] has been a laughing stock”.
Allan Hendrickse
The Congressional Church minister and Tri- cameral member of Parliament, who shot to prominence when he embarrassed his political masters by swimming in the then whites-only Kings beach in Port Elizabeth, has returned to the pulpit after an action packed political career.
He started out as a detainee following the 1976 riots, and then got a Cabinet seat in the Tricameral system. Hendrickse ended up on an ANC ticket in the post- apartheid Senate chamber after his Labour Party backed the liberation movement in the constitutional negotiations preceding the 1994 election.
Hendrickse says he has no regrets about his role in apartheid institutions. “My objective was to make the system unworkable from within.” He claims that the “fruits” of his political labour were paid out when he accompanied Nelson Mandela to receive his Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.
He retired from politics two years ago. He ministers to his Uitenhage congregation, receiving a monthly parliamentary pension pay-out.
Kaizer Matanzima
Led the pack in establishing a homeland government in 1960, and accepting homeland independence status in 1976. He is a cousin to Mandela. Matanzima recently turned 80 and is reported to be losing his memory. A birthday bash thrown in his honour was used as an occasion to reunite the Tembu royal house – providing Mandela the opportunity to lambast Matanzima for breaking away from the great royal house to establish an alternative traditional authority aligned to the homeland government system. Daliwonga, as Matanzima is affectionately known, lives on a state pension at his property in Umtata in the Eastern Cape.
Kenneth Mopeli
Known for his conspicuous low profile, in and out of power, the former Qwa-Qwa chief minister is generally remembered as one of the most boring politicians to have ever graced the South African political stage. Mopeli is a typical Free State lad with an exceptionally good command of Afrikaans, and holds a degree in the language from Unisa.
Mopeli is proud of having led his homeland government for 20 years, and says his achievements were “crowned” by the absence of his name in the TRC. “I am proud of what I have done for my people … strived for good administration and maintaining a good name,” Mopeli says. He spends much of his pension days reading and enjoying the company of his family.
Amichand ‘Raj’ Rajbansi
The great survivor of South African politics. Otherwise know as the Bengal Tiger, his political journey began at the South African Indian Council in 1974, through to the Indians-only House of Delegates under the Tricameral parliamentary system. Dismissed from public office after the James commission found him unfit to hold office, Rajbansi made a political comeback in 1994 under the banner of the Minority Front. He remains the party’s sole representative in the KwaZulu- Natal provincial legislature.
Raj is renowned for his ability to speak on any subject at any time. His famous quotes include: “I will double-cross that bridge when I come to it.”
Nelson Noko Ramodike
The most peripatetic politician on the country’s political landscape. The former traffic officer and court interpreter seemingly always draws inspiration from the character of his totem – a porcupine. In the past five years, Noko has taken membership of four political parties. Ramodike’s political star began to shine in 1989 when his Lebowa United Peoples Front won the 1989 elections that saw him become the homeland’s chief minister.
He joined the ANC-led Patriotic Front in the build-up to the Codesa talks. On the eve of the 1994 general election, Ramodike dissolved his party to join the ANC. When the ANC began to draw its list of parliamentary candidates, Ramodike jumped ship to the Pan Africanist Congress when he sensed that he would not make the ANC list.
It appears the PAC didn’t provide the political security that Ramodike had hoped for. When Holomisa’s UDM emerged in 1997, Ramodike wasted no time to join the new party. He is currently the UDM’s MP for the Northern Province.
Brigadier Gabriel Ramushwana
When Ramushwana ousted Chief Frank Ravele of Venda in a bloodless coup in 1989, nobody took him seriously at a time when homeland coups were becoming fashionable. However, he emerged a figure to be reckoned with when he hosted the first Umkhonto weSizwe conference inside the country a few months after the unbanning of the ANC.
His growing stature led to his appointment as the first commander of the National Peacekeeping Force (NPF), to quell political violence in Gauteng townships. The dissolution of the NPF and the creation of a new democratic order after the 1994 elections saw Ramushwana retreating to livestock farming in Messina.
Ramushwana still adds value to ANC party politics. He advises the party’s Northern Province region on various matters, including electioneering for the coming local government elections, as well as consulting for the Messina Transitional Metropolitan Council.
Tom Boya
The flamboyant former mayor of Daveyton township always had a taste for fancy hairstyles and attire. He was the youngest councillor to take office in the apartheid regime’s Black Local Authorities – a system which triggered a civic association-led rent boycott of the 1980s.
Boya has quit politics for a career in business. He manages the TS Chemical Supplier in Pietersburg, and serves as the chair of the National African Chamber of Commerce for the Northern Province.
Boya used the Anglican Church’s Tswelopele Youth Club in Daveyton as his political training ground, challenging the authoritarian code of the church. After entering politics in 1978 as a councillor, he went on to establish and lead the United Municipalities of South Africa. He unsuccessfully tried to justify the participation of blacks in apartheid structures in an effort to undermine the “system”.
Boya quit politics in the early 1990 after seeking to take on the ANC-dominated local civic association. Boya called a meeting of residents to discuss the payment of rates at the same time as a civic association meeting. More than 10 000 residents attended the latter, and about 80 turned up to listen to Boya.
“I miscalculated … I think I should have waited for while to see which way the wind was blowing, otherwise today I would be in local government,” Boya said about his exit from politics. He claims that scores of Daveyton residents want him back for the coming November local government elections.