Lucas Mangope

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Kgoshi Lucas Manyane Mangope (born December 27, 1923 in Motswedi near Zeerust , Transvaal ; † January 18, 2018 ) was a South African chief and politician . Between 1977 and 1994 he was president of the independent homeland of Bophuthatswana . Until 2011 he was chairman of the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP), which he founded.

Youth and education

Mangope is the son of Lucas and Lydia Mangope. The father was chief of the tribe baHurutshe bo Manyane ( Batswana ). Mangope completed his school education at St Peter's College , where he received the Senior Certificate (12-class qualification without Matric ) in 1946 . The first professional training as a teacher took place at the Anglican Grace Dieu Diocesan Training College near Pietersburg . Here he obtained the Junior Teaching Diploma (secondary school teacher). In the meantime, at the age of 21, Mangope moved up the hierarchy of the traditional chieftain's system and was given the command of the Mathlathowa regiment in the people of the Tswana. From 1947 to 1949 he worked in the Department of Native Affairs . From 1951 he continued his education at Bethel College near Lichtenburg with a further degree in education ( Higher Primary Teachers' Diploma ).

Professional development

After completing his second pedagogical diploma, he started teaching and taught at secondary schools in Mafeking , Motswedi , Krugersdorp and Potchefstroom in the area of ​​his specialization in Afrikaans .

During this time his interest in political issues developed. When his father died in 1959, he took over his role as chief of the baHurutshe bo Manyane tribe . In this context Mangope became a member of the Zeerust regional authority . At the same time, he was involved in the Bantu Education Advisory Board (German: "Advisory Board for Bantu Education ") and in the Advisory Board of the University of the North (Turfloop Campus).

Political career

When the establishment of the Tswana territorial authority (TTA) was declared in April 1961 , Mangope took over its vice-chairmanship under Chief Tidimane R. Pilane . At that time, Pilane had declared that all Tswana with "self-esteem" want the independence of their area. After a restructuring of the self-governing authority in 1968 Mangope came into the function of chief councillor of the executive council, which he exercised until the full establishment of self-governing status in June 1972.

From June 1, 1972, Mangope was initially Chief Minister of the homeland of Bophuthatswana, which had been placed under self-government status. The Proclamation R130 of the South African government of May 26th determined that from June 1, 1972 Bophuthatswana became a “self-governed territory within the Republic of South Africa”. The population of this area was the Legislative Assembly ( Legislative Assembly represented). In this body, the Chief Minister had to be elected, who according to the constitutional basis in force here had to be a chief. On October 4, 1972, the first elections for the Legislative Assembly took place . Mangope and his party Bophuthatswana National Party (BNP) won with 72 percent.

In 1974 he resigned from the BNP and became chairman of the newly formed Bophuthatswana Democratic Party (BDP).

On June 27, 1977, he was in Pretoria for a briefing with Prime Minister Vorster . With the establishment of the formal independence of Bophuthatswana on September 6, 1977 by a South African law Mangope came into the position of president. In this role he was also the head of the state administration of the Bantu state and Commander-in-Chief of the BophuthaTswana Defense Forces . The first elections under this constitutional framework took place in October 1982, when the BDP, with Mangope at its head, clearly won the election. With this majority he succeeded on July 11, 1984, the renewed confirmation as president for a further seven-year term. There was no opponent.

When protests by students at the University of Bophuthatswana (Unibo) began in August 1985 against the close cooperation between the home administration and the South African government, which included the demand for an ultimate change of power in South Africa, President Mangope left the university on October 9, 1985 close for about a month. In the course of November, such protests spread in an organized form as bus and school boycotts throughout the homeland. These events subsequently prompted Mangope to enforce a tightening of the Internal Security Act of 1979 ( Bp. Act ) in a special session of the National Assembly in December 1985 , which now enabled him to exercise greater control over all educational institutions in the homeland. When the unrest continued in the spring of 1986, Mangope asked the ANC leadership for mediation between him and the South African government. The ANC replied that any relationship with him was undesirable.

The second elections after the formal independence of Bophuthatswana on October 27, 1987, Mangope clearly won with his BDP and obtained 66 of the 72 seats in parliament. His opponent here was Rocky Malebane-Metsing .

Malebane-Metsing carried out a coup on the morning of February 10, 1988, arresting cabinet members, including Mangope, and declaring that they were taking over the presidency. About 17 hours later, the South African military under the leadership of Johannes Geldenhuys ( SADF ) and Johan van der Merwe ( SAP - Security branch ) ended this coup . After this failed coup, he owed his power to the South African military. The reasons for the attempted coup became known that Mangope had close ties to Shabtai Kalmanovits , who acted as the Israeli trade representative for the homeland Bophuthatswana in the diamond trade and is said to have supported the head of state with 1.5 million rand if he a. had come under pressure because of irregularities in administration and in elections or land confiscations against local tribal administrations. Mangope responded to the coup with mass arrests and "purges" in his government. Among the officials forced to resign was Chief Bennet LMI Motsatsi (Minister of the Interior), who was considered a future presidential candidate. Mangope emerged from the coup events strengthened domestically.

As a reaction to weeks of conflicts in everyday university life with the police units besieging him and the culminating student protests on May 7, 1993, Mangope caused the University of Bophuthatswana to close on May 11. The General Secretary of the Association of Democratic University Workers described the accompanying police operations, during which Casspir vehicles had rammed the university entrances, as an unleashed "reign of terror". In June 1993 Mangope banned an ANC protest march in Mmabatho , which had been announced with demands for free speech and political activity and for reintegration into South African state territory. In a speech to public service employees in July 1993, Mangope threatened that his administration would no longer employ people who sympathize with opposition organizations and that no member of the ANC and the SACP could work for the homeland administration.

Immediately before the first elections, which included the black majority at the end of April 1994, troops of the right-wing extremist African resistance movement tried to keep Mangope in power and thereby prevent Bophuthatswana from being relegated to South Africa. After continuing disputes, Mangope was deposed on March 12, 1994 and an interim administration under Tjaart van der Walt (former rector of the Potchefstroom University of Christian Higher Education , former Chancellor of Unibo, South African ambassador to the Republic of Bophuthatswana since 1992 ) and Tebogo Job Mokgoro ( PhD in administrative science from Unibo) prepared the reclassification on April 27, 1994.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Former Bophuthatswana leader dies
  2. ^ UCDP elects former secretary-general as leader. SABC, January 30, 2011 ( Memento of July 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Shelag Gastrow: Who's who in South African Politics, Number 4 . Johannesburg 1992, pp. 158-161
  4. ^ Sheila Keeble (ed.), SPP Kutumela, A. Booley: The Black Who's Who of Southern Africa Today . Johannesburg 1979, p. 171
  5. ^ North-West University: Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope. Doctor of Laws, LLD, 04/28/1984 . at www.nwu.ac.za (English)
  6. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1962 . Johannesburg 1963, p. 89
  7. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1972 . Johannesburg 1973, pp. 39, 183-184
  8. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1977 . Johannesburg 1978, pp. 322-323, 327-328
  9. ^ SAIRR: Race Relations Survey 1985 . Johannesburg 1986, pp. 296-297.
  10. ↑ Rokas M Tracevskis: Kaunas' most colorful son buried . In: The Baltic Times , November 11, 2009, online at www.baltictimes.com (English)
  11. ^ SAIRR: Race Relations Survey 1993/1994 . Johannesburg 1994, p. 634
  12. ^ SAIRR: Survey 1986, Part 1 . Johannesburg 1987, p. 117
  13. ^ North-West University : NWU's Prof Fika pays tribute to former rector . at www.nwu.ac.za (English)
  14. ^ JFKS Consulting (Pty) Ltd: Prof Job Mokgoro . on www.jfks.co.za (English)
  15. ^ South African History Online: Bophuthatswana . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  16. ^ South African History Online: Chief Lucas Mangope is deposed as leader of Bophuthatswana . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
personal data
SURNAME Mangope, Lucas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mangope, Kgosi Lucas Manyane (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African chief and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Motswedi
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 2018