From the early 1980s, the so-called “Ciskei homeland” provided the Dispatch with an endless stream of political intrigue and bizarre and sometimes tragic stories.
The apartheid government finally decided to create a Ciskei state nominally “independent” of South Africa in 1981, but irrevocably bonded to the regime via a network of funding, shady politics, secret police and the armed forces.
Self-proclaimed chief, Lennox Sebe, already had a lengthy track record as a homeland civil servant and drew support from chiefs appointed by the apartheid government.
Following a referendum on independence in December 1980, Sebe became president and by 1983 was bestowed with the ludicrous title “President for Life.”
From the outset the Ciskei had scant credibility and "the puppet" Sebe was forced to rule with what the Dispatch described as an “iron fist”, using draconian laws against political opposition, trade unions and even his own brother Charles.
Tension between the Ciskei and the Matanzima regime-ruled Transkei, also fuelled several coup attempts and in February 1986 a full-scale military assault on the Ciskei presidential palace included white mercenaries and led to the death of a Transkei Defence Force soldier.
On March 4, 1990, Sebe was in Taiwan when one of his senior officers, Brigadier Oupa Gqozo ousted him in a bloodless coup. It was a time of looming transition and Gqozo initially won over the popular anti-apartheid movement with promises of an end to political repression and the reincorporation of Ciskei into South Africa.
But the “honeymoon” would be short-lived. The Dispatch tracked a shifting relationship between the Ciskei regime and the mass democratic movement in then-King William's Town region — one that would culminate in the Bhisho massacre, one of the worst atrocities of the political transition in South Africa.
Source: Daily Dispatch 30 September 1986, 8 October 1986, 23 August 1990
https://www.hrw.org/reports/1991/southafrica3/#4
