The Kwa-Ndebele independence issue: A critical appraisal of the crises around independence in Kwa-Ndebele 1982–1989

Kwa-Ndebele, a small peri-urban sett lement about 60 kilometres northeast of Pretoria, was purpor ted to be home for the South Ndebele South Africans. Consistent with the National Par ty ' s insistence that the black people are not a homogeneous group, but consist of a number of dist inctly separa te ethnic minorit ies, it made sense that in the government ' s formulat ion of programmes to regulate racial relations after the Second World War, the ethnic factor should be accorded such significance. It was in recognition of this fact that the government divided the black populat ion into ethnic units, each in its own 'homeland ' , where it could develop culturally, economical ly and politically. During the early stages of separate development, the apartheid ideologues consistently left the South Ndebele out of these emerging plans for an ethnically-parti t ioned South Africa, in the hope that they would integrate with other ethnic groups until they disappeared. 1 In the early 1970s, however, a decision was taken to reeognise the South Ndebele as a separate ethnic unit and urgent steps were taken to consolidate the farms around Weltevrede into a homeland. What had changed? The intention of this article is to provide an answer to this question by focusing on the reasons for the establishment of KwaNdebele. It also looks at its failure, in contras t to the success of the former homelands to become independent from South Africa as planned for 11 December 1986. Given the veri table mounta in of l i terature on apartheid, it is