The Sekhukhuneland Revolt

Sekhukhuneland comprised a patchwork of locations demarcated in the 19th century and farms purchased by communities or acquired by the South African Native Trust in the 20th century. There were numerous rural villages across this region. In 1958, internal division in Sekhukhuneland, climatic factors, the agricultural reforms and the role of migrant workers contributed to the outbreak of a revolt, known as "motshabo". It was a manifestation of rural resistance against the government policy of rural restructuring undertaken by the Union government and later developed by the Nationalist Party. The resentment and support of the government policies fueled internal division in the community. The Nationalist Party wanted to expand and entrench the system of racial segregation by establishing homelands for each of the country’s ethnic groups. A plethora of founding legislation were passed to this effect including, the Bantu Authorities Act, the Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act, the Regional Authorities Act and the Territorial Authorities Act. These were therefore some of the key founding legislation for the Bantustan system. The chiefs were supposed to be the bedrock, the foundation and the cornerstone of the fraudulent system. The people in the rural areas heroically rose to oppose these and stoically fought against the expansion of the fascist racial supremacist policies and practices of the apartheid regime. In the Eastern Transvaal, in Sekhukhuneland, opposition to Bantu Authorities flared into open resistance, when the government banished King Moroamoche and some of his councillors.