Background
Kgosi Mangope was born on December 27, 1923, in the Tswana homeland.
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Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope
Edit ProfileEducation
Made the most of his education locally, qualified as a teacher and then taught in school from 1948 to 1958.
Career
He worked as a high school teacher until 8 August 1959, when he succeeded his father Lucas as Chief of the Motswedi Ba hurutshe-Boo-Manyane tribe. On 1 May 1971, Mangope became Chief Minister of the Bophuthatswana Legislative Assembly and retained his post following the first Bophuthatswana elections on 4 October 1972. Initially leader of the Bophuthatswana National Party, Mangope left the party following what was officially referred to as 'internal strife' and formed the Bophuthatswana Democratic Party, which then became the governing party. He became President in 1977.
In 1988 he was briefly overthrown by members of a military police unit, and was reinstated following intervention by the South African Defence Force. South Africa's government stated that it was responding to a request for assistance from the legal government of a sovereign nation.
Politics
Mangope was accused of using his Defence Force and Police to suppress protests, and had been accused of police brutality when a student protest was suppressed by his police force. Mangope's supporters, however, have argued that Bophuthatswana was comparatively more successful than other Bantustans in social and economic development, owing to its mineral wealth. Although designated as an ethnic Tswana homeland, Bophuthatswana was more or less an integrated society where Apartheid legislation did not apply, in common with other homelands.
Personality
Leader of 1,800,000 Tswanas, third largest Bantu nation. Not as critical of the South African government as other Bantu chiefs because he accepts separate development as better than nothing. A former teacher, he is opposed to violence and any intervention by African freedom fighters. Vigorous campaigner for more land for his people than was allocated under the 1936 Act.
Quotes from others about the person
Sasha Polakow-Suransky has written that Mangope was "widely considered a puppet and a joke in South Africa" during his presidency.
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Born
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Nationality
South African -
Political Party
United Christian Democratic Party
Career
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1968 - June 1, 1972
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June 1, 1972 - December 6, 1977
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December 6, 1977 - March 13, 1994