"Bringing together that which belongs together": The establishment of KwaNdebele and the incorporation of Moutse
Date
1996-03-11
Authors
Nielsen, Derrick
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Abstract
Through a series of public statements and official proclamations issued in the early 1980s, the
South African government confirmed that KwaNdebele, a small peri-urban settlement northeast
of Pretoria, was to become the fifth 'independent homeland' in the country. One of the smallest
and poorest of Pretoria's territorial constructs, the Department of Co-operation and
Development planned to boost the area's viability by incorporating the historically non-Ndebele
area of Moutse, originally a part of Lebowa, into KwaNdebele before granting independence.
From 1985 until the end of the decade, both Moutse and KwaNdebele witnessed periods of
popular revolt and mass mobilization against aspects of the government's bantustan policy, in particular against plans calling for the consolidation, development and eventual independence of
KwaNdebele. As conflict engulfed the KwaNdebele region in 1985-6, the parliamentary opposition, political NGOs and a wide-range of journalists and commentators questioned both the objectives and the tactics of the Botha government. For many, Moutse's incorporation and KwaNdebele's
independence represented, in a vivid and tragic manner, the illogical nature of government
policy. When Allister Sparks headed one of his columns with the question "What on earth is the
Government playing at in KwaNdebele?" he was voicing a wide-spread sense of frustration and
disbelief. However, despite the urgency which the revolts' bloodshed had added, the substance
of Sparks' rhetorical question was not new. KwaNdebele has frequently been cited as an
example of the ridiculous lengths to which the previous government was willing to go in the
pursuit of ethnic purity. In such accounts, KwaNdebele's belated establishment represents the
last step in a long, and illogical, process of ethnic partition. Sparks summarized KwaNdebele's
creation thus:
It was formed by buying up 19 white farms, building an instant capital called
Siyabuswa, finding a compliant member of the Ndebele tribe named Simon Skosana
who was wining to play ban, making him Chief Minister of a nominated legislative
assembly, then, on his say-so, declaring that the 'people' of KwaNdebele had opted
for independence.
In addition, Sparks questioned the logic of Moutse's incorporation:
I would like someone to give me one sensible reason for what has been done. The
annexation does not even make sense in terms of the Government's own ideology.
The people of Moutse are Sotho-speaking members of the Pedi tribe. According to
the logic of apartheid's insistence on ethnic compartmentalization, they should form
part of the North Sotho "homeland' of Lebowa. But the Government has removed
them from Lebowa and forced them to join the "homeland' for the Ndebele. Why?
What follows is an attempt to answer Sparks' query. The primary objective of this paper is to
construct a narrative of events which tracks government policy towards the Ndebele from their
initial scattered existence across the Transvaal, to the belated creation and consolidation of
KwaNdebele and, finally, to the incorporation of the primarily non-Ndebele area of Moutse.
Throughout, I will adopt a top-down approach in order to view events and the region from the
perspective of the South African government, and more specifically, from the perspective of
officials involved in formulating homeland policy.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 11 March 1996
Keywords
KwaNdebele (South Africa). Politics and government