ABSTRACT
This paper explores the legacy and impact of Bophuthatswana on South Africa’s North-West province. Formed after the introduction of a unitary and democratic South Africa in 1994, the new province comprised most of the former ‘homeland’ and the western Transvaal, and a section of the far northern Cape. Following earlier contributions made by scholars dealing with the transition of the ‘homeland’, we pursue the views and analyses expressed there, principally by updating events since c. 1996. The paper investigates institutional and other legacies (in particular the notion of Pan-Tswanaism) that might have continued into the new dispensation, concluding that they have not impacted significantly or consistently on the province’s inhabitants-save in one significant aspect. This, the kernel of our argument, is that Bophuthatswana was an artificial creation in many aspects, no more so than in its ethnic formulation as a ‘Pan-Tswana nation’. It was essentially a constellation of particularistic sub-ethnic social formations, held together by President Lucas Mangope, who exercised almost complete control over all aspects of these Tribal Authorities. Once his centralising power was removed, it opened the door for a reassertion of regionally-based ethnic affiliations. This was given impetus by the unparalleled expansion in mining in the province. Due to a number of curious historical anomalies, this mining takes place on land held by these groups with the ‘tribe’ as beneficiaries, under the overall leadership of a chief and a Traditional Council. The paper provides examples to illustrate how Mangope completely dominated the sub-ethnic groups within Bophuthatswana and conversely how their fortunes revived after his fall. There are some similarities with the Bophuthatswana regime in the systems of control exercised by these traditional authorities, but the comparison is also misleading. How the tensions created within these groups eventually play out remains to be seen.
