For fifteen hours on 10 February the Bophuthatswana bantustan administration was controlled by a mutinous section of the 'Bophuthatswana Defence Force' (BDF). The 'coup' collapsed when South African troops stormed a stadium in which the bantustan leader Lucas Mangope and other senior officials were being held.
The mutiny was carried out by disaffected members of the 600-strong National Security Unit responsible for protecting dignitaries and guarding key buildings. Members of the force, which was formed in 1986 and has now been disbanded, were given only six weeks training and proved no match for South African Defence Force (SADF) units equipped with armoured vehicles which put down the mutiny.
The mutineers, led by a Warrant Officer, captured Mangope and other senior bantustan officials, including South African officers who command the BDF, and held them at gunpoint in the Mmabatho Independence Stadium. They attempted to install as 'president' the leader of the recently-formed opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP), Rocky Malebane-Metsing.
While the mutiny was restricted to the guard unit, other units of the 'Bophuthatswana Defence Force' (BDF), up to 4,000 men, did nothing to stop the revolt after the capture of their South African commanders. Students at the University of Bophuthatswana demonstrated in support of the overthrow of Mangope and in some areas people displayed open jubilation at the news.
While the PPP accepts the principle of bantustan 'independence', the mutineers denounced the corruption of the Mangope administration and the rigging of bantustan elections in October last year.
Mangope's National Democratic Party won 66 of 72 seats in the bantustan legislature in the October elections, the PPP taking the other six. Anti-apartheid organisations had called for a boycott of the election, and only about six per cent of potential voters turned out. Opposition groups demanded the nullification of the election results, citing widespread intimidation, pressure on public servants and threats to withdraw payments from pensioners voting against the ruling party.
A central figure in the corruption allegations is an Israeli businessman, Shabtai Kalmanovitch, who played a prominent role in the bantustan administration, acted as trade representative in Israel and secured most of the construction contracts in Bophuthatswana. The bantustan has been the hub of a complex web of international financial deals, which included secret South African arms deals in violation of UN embargoes.
According to some reports, Pretoria was determined to keep Mangope in power because of his good links abroad, especially in the Federal Republic of Germany, and his knowledge of South African arms and financial deals. The bantustan police and military units are also closely tied to Pretoria.
A wave of popular resistance in Bophuthatswana, which was at its most intense in 1984-6 in the densely populated Odi-Moretele district, has been met with brutal repression and the detention of many youth and community leaders. At least three people have been sentenced to death in a trial arising out of resistance. At the huge Winterveld resettlement site in March 1986 Bophuthatswana police opened fire on a crowd protesting at detentions, killing at least 11 and wounding 200. A commission of inquiry into the massacre had not made its findings known by the time of the army mutiny. Meetings not approved by the authorities are prohibited under the Bophuthatswana Internal Security Act, and there are severe restrictions on trade unions.
The February mutiny was followed by 'a reign of terror', according to the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, Rev. Frank Chikane. He said that hundreds of people had been 'hunted and harassed and detained by the Bophuthatswana Defence Force, supported by the SA Defence Force', and that members of youth clubs, women's groups and cultural organisations had been targetted.
On 19 February it was disclosed that 446 people had been arrested, including 280 members of the disbanded National Security Unit and 163 supporters of the PPP. Forty-six people had appeared in court. Bantustan officials said that charges of treason, which carry the death penalty, were being considered. SADF and SA Police personnel were still present in large numbers in the bantustan in March. The university was closed for a week after the mutiny and its residences were shut down.
