Ruler under troubled skies
June 19, 2003 Edition -1
By Zingisa Mkhuma
When Chief Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima was asked in 1976 if the people of Transkei wanted independence, his answer was: "Definitely."
He said this even though he never held a referendum to gauge the people's thoughts before he accepted independence. Instead, he planned a pre-independence general election.
Matanzima also passed the notorious Proclamation R400
to ensure that the transition would run smoothly, without interference from his opponents, who included the opposition Democratic Party.
Proclamation R400 provided for detention without trial and stipulated that meetings could not be held without
the written consent of a Bantu Commissioner.
This made it almost impossible for anti-independence forces to put their case to the people of Transkei. Even during the elections, there was no such thing as a secret ballot for people who could not read. They had to come to the balloting room and, in the presence of an electoral officer and two witnesses, they were required to say who they wanted to vote for. The vote was then recorded by the officer.
That is how Transkei's road to self-determination was paved - with a litany of repressive legislation that ensured that "The Kaizer" wielded absolute power.
During his reign, Matanzima, with the assistance of his brother George - both had legal backgrounds - passed the controversial press bill, which required journalists to disclose their sources or face a fine or imprisonment. The bill ensured that there could be no free speech in his Bantustan. And this was just the beginning.
The ultimate was the law that stipulated that criticising the Transkei's independence was tantamount to treason and thus punishable by death. This effectively silenced all opposition both before and after Transkei got its independence.
Matanzima's rise to power was closely associated with the powerful role he played in the tribal hierarchy. He moved from a relatively junior position as chief of the Ama-hale in 1940 to become the paramount chief of emigrant abaTembu in 1966 and again paramount chief of Western Tembuland in 1976. His rise, in terms of power if not traditional custom, superseded that of his great rival and relative, Paramount Chief Sabata Dalindyebo of abaTembu.
Having failed to co-opt Sabata into his fiefdom, Matanzima did everything in his power to depose him as paramount chief. He succeeded only in 1980 when a Transkei court found Sabata guilty of violating and injuring the dignity of the state president.
Sabata had told a gathering of more than 1 000 people at his Sithebe Great Place that he had refused an offer from Matanzima to become the first president of Transkei because homelands were "pigsties and dummy institutions".
Sabata fled the Transkei and ended up in Zambia, where he threw in his lot with the African National Congress.
Ironically, Matanzima would, from time to time, issue threats to Lesotho and warned that Transkei would hit back at Lesotho "with all the might at its disposal" for harbouring Transkeians intending to launch attacks on their own country.
He sought protection from the growing unrest in and outside his own homeland by passing even more stringent laws.
At the height of the student uprisings in 1981, he renewed the state of emergency for the second year in a row. This, in effect, curtailed the movement of students and anyone employed in education institutions.
During his tenure, Matanzima surprised many, including his masters in Pretoria, with his occasional outbursts.
Delivering his New Year message during a public broadcast, he once called upon Transkeians everywhere to identify themselves with their kin - the black people of Southern Africa - in the struggle for existence as a nation.
Yet, strangely, he was against Ciskei's independence. In 1981, he issued statements calling on Transkeians not to attend Ciskei's "celebration of slavery and deceit".
"The division of the Xhosa nation into two independent states and the activities of the Republic of South Africa's army in Transkei are matters which should receive the attention of my people and their government," he said.
The same Matanzima flirted with the idea of federalism, which had been initiated by the then Lebowa's Cedric Phatudi.
The precise plan was that they could bring together independent states, homeland governments and black people living in urban areas.
Matanzima was quoted after a meeting with homeland leaders, who included Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, as saying: "Transkeians must understand clearly that as long as the Republic of South Africa is occupied by whites, we will never be free.
"Freedom in the true sense means all land free first."
After the meeting, Buthelezi issued a statement rejecting the concept of "racial politics".
It was also rumoured that, at the meeting, Matanzima had expressed regrets at having accepted independence, but this was denied by Transkei's foreign affairs minister.
In clear contradiction of his acceptance of independence in 1976, Matanzima made an about-turn in 1983 when he, together with six black homeland leaders, signed
a declaration of intent pledging to "work ceaselessly for the establishment of a greater South Africa", thus promising to reintegrate Transkei into South Africa.
As early as 1984, there was talk that Nelson Mandela - who comes from the same Thembu kraal as Matanzima - could be released, on condition that he agreed to stay in the Transkei. Of course, Mandela rejected the offer.
Ironically, Matanzima's own utterances contravened the very same draconian law he had personally created - the Public Security Act, which made it treasonable to advocate that Transkei should be part of another country.
Then again, he would cry foul and complain that South Africa was ostracising Transkei by wanting it to be independent.
"The international community should not be bluffed by South Africa into believing that it is treating Transkei well. We are being discriminated against because we are not prepared to lose our sovereign independence and bend down to take dictates from South Africa," he said.
Back then, a chief was not a chief if his remuneration did not reflect it. In 1983, Matanzima made headlines when he raised his salary from R41 500 to R75 000 a year, making him the highest paid politician in southern Africa. In fact, his salary was R15 000 higher that that of South Africa's Prime Minister PW Botha, who got R60 234. And it was even higher than that of Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who earned R63 500.
When his brother, George, announced the increases, he emphasised that the country's economy was facing difficult times.
"In these circumstances, honourable members should not be seen to be in a quest of self-enrichment, but should be seen to be committed to the upliftment of all the people of Transkei," he said.
Earlier, Matanzima had announced that he would step down and make way for a younger man. At 66, he said he had his family and tribe to think about before death overtook him.
In truth, there would be three such promises during Matanzima's tenure.
The next one came in July 1983, when he turned down an offer for a life-long presidency, and again in 1985 when he talked of retiring "some time this year".
He finally quit when his term of office expired in February 1986.
Was Matanzima a Verwoerdian who clung to a separate development philosophy, still believing he was right to opt for independence, right until the end?
We may never know. But a statement he made while still in power gives us some clue as to his own deluded sense of accomplishment: "My service to the nation of Transkei is unblemished," he said.
"I have led the people of this nation to freedom from the white man's yoke of oppression, though we have not yet got all our land back."
