Chief minister and first president of Ciskei (1926?1994)
Lennox Leslie Wongama Ngweyesizwe Sebe
(26 July 1926 ? 23 July 1994) was the chief minister of the
Xhosa
bantustan
of
Ciskei
after its self-rule in 1972, and the nominally independent country's first
president
from 1983. His praise name (isikhahlelo) was
Ngweyesizwe
.
Early life
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Born in Belstone, near
King William's Town
and he is brother of
Charles Sebe
, Sebe worked first as a school teacher before being appointed as a school principal in 1954. In 1968, Sebe was elected as a representative of the
Xhosa Kingdom
's AmaNtinde chieftaincy in the Ciskeian Territorial Authority and became responsible for Educational and Cultural Affairs, before transferring to the Agriculture portfolio in 1971.
Rise to power
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Sebe founded the
Ciskei National Independence Party
and contested Ciskei's inaugural election in February 1973. He was elected to the Zwelitsha electorate and succeeded
Chief Justice Mabandla
to become the second Chief Minister of Ciskei on 21 May 1973. He would then become president when Ciskei was granted nominal independence from
South Africa
on 4 December 1981. Sebe declared himself
President for Life
in 1983.
[2]
Sebe was faced with leading an economically unviable state, with a population of one million, many of them Xhosa forced to relocate to the bantustan in the 1970s, during South Africa's
apartheid
regime.
Dictatorship
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Immediately upon independence, Sebe consolidated power in a dictatorship, supported by the 1,000-strong military force. He crushed all opposition, including bitter protests against a transit
fare strike
in 1983 (most residents worked outside the bantustan, and relied on public transportation to get them to work). That same year, Sebe's brother, Lieutenant General
Charles Sebe
, head of Ciskei's intelligence service, attempted to overthrow the government. Though Charles Sebe was arrested, he escaped from prison in 1986 and made his way to nearby
Transkei
, where he continued to agitate against the regime. In 1987, he orchestrated the
kidnapping
of Sebe's son Khwane, who was held prisoner in
Transkei
until Sebe agreed to release political prisoners in exchange for his son.
Sebe visited
Israel
on several occasions during his presidency and established a trade office in
Tel Aviv
that was run by two Israelis with ties to the
Gush Emunim
Israeli settler
movement. During this period, the Ciskeian capital,
Bisho
, signed a sister-city agreement with the settlement community of
Ariel
in the
West Bank
. Sebe once claimed that Israel had granted official recognition to Ciskei, although the
Israeli Foreign Ministry
denied this.
[3]
Collapse
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Sebe was overthrown by
a military coup
led by Brigadier General
Oupa Gqozo
on 4 March 1990 while on state visit to
Hong Kong
and charged with
corruption
and
human rights
violations.
[4]
He died in 1994 after the reintegration to Ciskei in South Africa.
Sources
[
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- Polakow-Suransky, S. (2010)
The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa
, Pantheon Books: New York.
ISBN
9780375425462
.
References
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