The Birth of BophuthaTswana

A second tribal homeland gains autonomy without freedom

There were tribal dancers and gymnastics displays and, on the stroke of midnight, a 101-gun salute. The South African flag was lowered; in its place was raised a banner of blue with a diagonal orange stripe and an inset of a leopard's head. In Mmabatho, the new capital carved out of the bush, the crowd roared its approval as President Lucas Mangope, head of the new government, declared that "at last we are no longer helplessly at the mercy of the arbitrary arrogance of those who until this hour trampled our human dignity into the dust."

Apart from those ceremonial high points, the birth of the new "republic" of BophuthaTswana last week was singularly lacking in the kind of euphoria that independence rites usually inspire. The second of South Africa's nine tribal homelands to be granted "independence," BophuthaTswana (literally meaning "that which binds the Tswana") is not recognized by any country in the world except South Africa and another homeland, Transkei, which became independent last year. BophuthaTswana's creation was opposed not only by many South African blacks but also by much of world opinion. United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim last week said that he "strongly deplored" the establishment of "another so-called independent tribal homeland in pursuance of the discredited policies of apartheid."

The creation of these quasi-independent states is a basic part of the Pretoria government's long-range survival plan for South African whites. The policy of "separate development" calls for dividing the country's 18.6 million blacks and 4.3 million whites into ten states, nine for blacks and one for whites. The whites' state will encompass 87% of South Africa's territory, including all 17 major cities.

The first homeland to accept independence, Transkei, at least had the distinction of being virtually a self-contained entity with an Indian Ocean coastline and a deep-water port. Landlocked BophuthaTswana, by contrast, consists of seven patches of territory scattered from the northwestern Transvaal to the Orange

Free State some 500 miles to the south (see map). Its population of 2.5 million citizens includes members of 76 ethnic groups, mostly subtribes of the Tswana, a Bantu-speaking people who have traditionally lived between the Zambezi and the Orange rivers. But more than half these people work in white South Africa and do not even live in the territory. By threatening to reject independence, Chief Mangope persuaded Pretoria to grant Tswanas who do not want homeland citizenship permanent residence in South Africa, where they will at least have access to jobs.

For the foreseeable future, the new state will be financially dependent on Pretoria, which will also advise on BophuthaTswana's diplomatic and defense affairs. Nonetheless, the new homeland has a considerable economic potential: at present it accounts for two-thirds of the total platinum production in the Western world. It is also rich in asbestos, granite, vanadium, chromium and manganese. By 1979 the homeland should be receiving direct mining revenues of about $30 million a year. But only 10% of BophuthaTswana's total land area is arable, and much of that is covered with scrub brush.

Educational and health problems are pressing. There are no more than 20 doctors in the entire country, and only eleven hospitals. Chief Mangope, 53, himself a former schoolteacher, returned from a visit to the U.S. in 1973 with a list of black American teachers willing to work in the homeland. At the time, the South African government refused them entry, something it can no longer do. Now Mangope hopes to persuade the volunteers--or new recruits--to come.

Like Transkei's Prime Minister, Chief Kaiser Matanzima, who attended the independence ceremonies last week, Mangope is a political conservative without any viable opposition. His BophuthaTswana Democratic Party won overwhelmingly in pre-independence elections, and has 92 out of the 96 seats in the national assembly. Mangope has vowed never to let his territory become a base for black militants or anti-South African terrorists. Some urban blacks have attacked him as a puppet of Pretoria for going along with the independence scheme. Mangope argues that the plan will enable his people to consolidate their political power and thus negotiate with South Africa from a stronger position. "We cannot take the humiliations of the South African system any longer," he said last week. "We would rather face the difficulties of administering a fragmented territory, the wrath of the outside world, and accusations of ill-informed people. It's the price we are prepared to pay for being masters of our own destiny." Politically, the Tswanas had gained at last a measure of freedom, even though it may be a long time before they can also claim a comparable measure of economic independence.

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