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Transkei.
Information.
TRANSKEI (officially the Republic of Transkei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. Area - 43,798 sq.km. Population - 2,323,650 (1989) Capital - Umtata. The South African government set up the area as one of the two homelands for Xhosa-speaking people in Cape Province, the other being Ciskei; it was given nominal autonomy in 1963. Although the first election was contested and won by the Democratic Party, whose founder Chief Victor Poto was opposed to the notion of Bantustan independence, the government was formed by the Transkei National Independence Party. The entity became a nominally independent state in 1976 with its capital at Umtata, although it was recognised only by South Africa and later by the other nominally independent republics within the TBVC-system. Chief Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima was Transkei's Prime Minister until 1979, when he assumed the office of President, a position he held until 1986. The United Nations Security Council supported moves not to recognise Transkei, and in Resolution 402 condemned moves by South Africa to pressure Lesotho to recognise Transkei by closing its borders with the country. On 20 February 1986, faced with South African evidence of corruption, Matanzima was forced to retire as President. He was succeeded by his brother George. Kaiser Matanzima was still described as Transkei's effective leader for a time, but soon the two fell out and Kaiser was temporarily detained in the Transkei gaols in 1987; upon release, he was restricted to Qamata. In 1987, Transkei, a larger, wealthier and more populous entity, which had long sought the annexation of Ciskei, and had undertaken a series of military raids on Ciskei attempted to seize control of Ciskei, in an attack on leader Lennox Sebe's compound, with the apparent goal of taking him hostage, in order to force a merger of the two Bantustans. The South African government intervened to warn the Transkei government off. The Transkei government was a participant in the Codesa negotiations for a new South Africa. The territory was reincorporated into South Africa on 27 April 1994, and the area became part of the Eastern Cape province. Currency : South African Rand.
