ABSTRACT
The establishment of colonial government over Africans marked the terminal phase of effective political independence. The Bantu Authorities Act was the most important instrument of the Nationalist government in establishing the basis for the apartheid system in the countryside. Finally, the Bantu Homelands Constitution Act of 1971 empowered the government to grant self-government to a homeland. The exception to the general rule that political parties in homelands and national states were small and limited in their political reach is provided by Inkatha, the Zulu political movement formed by Chief Gatsha Buthelezi. The transfer of property, so smoothly effected, strengthened the political structures of the homelands states by giving the new African trading class a stake in the political order. From being an important auxiliary power in South Africa's political defence system, the national states may turn out to be one of the weakest links in the chain of control.
