(The following address was made by former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng at the first Inaugural Lecture in Recognition & Honour of Kgosi L.M Mangope’s Contribution on the 24th of February in Motswedi Village, North West. The lecture was attended by ActionSA President Herman Mashaba.

Mogoeng is not affiliated with ActionSA.)

When I received the invitation to deliver this inaugural lecture my instinctive and undeniably carnal reaction was a dismissive one. It was probably influenced by a plethora of things including “what would my enemies say?”.

Mine was that predictable attitude of a man who has been routinely attacked by the self-ordained or aspirant kingmakers and crafters and enforcers of self- or clique-serving narratives, who hold the view that it must always be their way or the highway. Thoughts like “so Mogoeng now sides with puppets of the apartheid system like Mangope. He has nostalgia for the repressive Bophuthatswana homeland regime. We have always known that Mogoeng is a sellout”, raged through my mind.

Happily, I remembered that I have been willingly captured by the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. So I turned to my Master Jesus Christ and He overrode my preliminary narrative-inspired decision and instructed me to accept the invitation and here I am.

Allow me to dispose of preliminary issues that could otherwise bedevil this glorious moment. Was Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope a perfect man? No! Like all of us there are bad things he did to others. It’s a matter of degree. Am I a family friend? No! I never met or spoke to any member of the family before I accepted the request to deliver this lecture. So, I am delivering this lecture as a matter of principle.

Was the Homeland system credible, defensible and fundamentally sound at a conceptual level. A big NO. Did I support it? NO! Did Bophuthatswana as an integral part of that system do any good to me and other people? Yes! Much more than time permits me to explain.

And how could a governance system so indefensible turn out to be so beneficial to so many? It all boils down to the undeniable visionary leadership and genuine commitment to all-round development to meaningfully improve the quality of life of a people, that largely defined who Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope really was and what he was about. Let me elaborate.

I still remember the day I first went to Mmabatho, as a Secondary School student, bussed together with many other learners to go and listen to Kgosi Mangope. It could have been 1977 or 1977. The essence or theme of his message was “re na le rona”.

I was moved by that oratory articulation of the possibility to achieve a whole lot more notwithstanding the opposition, prophecies of doom and contemptuous rejection of even the remotest possibility that any good thing could come from what you envision for the greater good of many. I was so inspired by that address that back at school I just couldn’t stop talking about”rena le rona”. Meaning, that we have one another’s back is enough for the attainment of all we need and have set ourselves to achieve.

The sheer beauty and scale of development showcased by the likes of Reviera Park. Mmabatho Unit One and a vast array of modern infrastructure was not only breathtaking and overwhelming but also reassuring that the territory was undoubtedly destined for greatness in the months and years that lay ahead.

A year or so later I went to further my High School studies at Hebron College of Education and High School. I and two or so others instigated the student-body to observe June 16 day with the rest of South Africa by wearing black instead of the prescribed uniform. It was in1979. We were dismissed, branded communists but later reinstated because students refused to go back to classes unless we were reinstated.

At the time, I was a beneficiary of a Bophuthatswana Government bursary scheme for the under-resourced who performed well. I thought it would be discontinued the next year by reason of what Government (Kgosi Mangope in particular who expressed his unmitigated disgust at our behaviour) regarded as my rebellious and dangerous behaviour. Surprisingly, the bursary was not discontinued and not once was I required to disavow my stance in relation to June 16.

When I went to the university in 1981, I was once again pleasantly surprised to learn that my stance, that was unacceptable to the Bop Government, was not held against me. Not only did the Public Service Commission grant me a bursary for my Bachelor’s degree (BJuris) but it also funded my LLB degree, which in those days was the equivalent of an Honours degree.

The condition for the assistance was clear – your pass and either pay back the money or serve the Bop Government for the number of years your studies were funded. I must add that the Bop PSC Bursary scheme was a well organized, operationally-effiient and cheaper way of running a bursary scheme designed to benefit multitudes. It has produced many professionals of note.

Justice Bess Nkabinde and I are products of that scheme who ended up serving the nation in the highest Court in the land. At some point I was serving as the Chief Justice of the Republic, and she as the Acting Deputy Chief Justice. It is noteworthy that students then had the benefit of career-guidance by highly qualified people, Mr More from Hebron village and others. They said I was wired to be a lawyer though I wanted to wear the white robes. Here I am, a content lawyer.

A proper reflection on the life of the results-oriented Kgosi Mangope would be enabled by a reference to that part of the Preamble to the Constitution of this country that best captures his role. And it reads in relevant parts:

“We, the people of South Africa,
……
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country”.

Undeniably, Kgosi Mangope was sharply focused on the realisation of his developmental vision. To this end he worked tirelessly and most productively. And, the results speak for themselves. None of the Homeland leaders and none of our President’s or Premiers have contextually done nearly as much as he did for the people he undertook to serve. His enemies acknowledge this in private or when they are at war with one another.

Labels, prejudice, irrational denial of irrefutable evidence or the inclination to lazily judge the book by its cover as opposed to its contents, would perhaps explain why the legendary leadership of great men and difference-makers like Kgosi Mangope are glossed over.

Labels dictate that they be forever viewed with jaundiced eyes. The profundity of their contribution to the well-being of humanity would always be downplayed or ignored in public but most glowinglly spoken of in private. The well-deserved appreciation of the full measure of their contribution is, as I said, either spoken of in hushtones, mentioned in an outburst whenever there is dissention or heated debates in the camp of their opponents or are otherwise clandestinely smuggled through to those who need to hear them.

Safety and security or law and order or the protection of the residents of Bophuthatswana and their belongings were some of the hallmarks of his leadership and governance trades. Consequently, crime was at its lowest because the criminal element knew just too well that consequence-management was well-entrenched or highly practicalised.

Drug-trafficking, cash heists and the professionalised corruption we have become used to, were virtually non-existent. Unlike all others, he was singled-out for public humiliation as the most corrupt of all Homeland leaders, and nothing much came out.

High quality education was insisted on and prioritised for implementation. Cast your mind back to the exceptionally high quality of education offered by virtually all public schools and the likes of Sol Plaatjie Primary School, Mmabatho High School, International School as well as Unibo, which were all birthed and sustained under the watchful eye and visionary leadership of Kgosi Manyane Mangope.

So committed he was to education tha public servants were incentivised to study. There was a higher salary notch that came with the successful completion of say four courses, and even more so the completion of a diploma or degree. Many public servants thus earned Honours, Masters and Doctoral degrees. Remember the Hotel School, Technical Colleges, Teacher’s Colleges, Nursing Colleges and the role they played in adding vibrancy to the hospitality industry and in strengthening the education, health and services sector of Bophuthatswana.

Land distribution and agriculture were grounded on a clear vision to guarantee success to whoever was hungry for success. Not only was land leased out to black farmers on favourable terms, but supporting institutions like Kgora were in place to periodically impart the necessary capacities or skills to farmers so that they could run their operations scientifically, sustainably and from a position of knowledge.

The Taung Agricultural High School and the Taung College of Agriculture were established from scratch and well run. The wide range of programs the School and the College provided were of a very high standard and their products/students turned out be excellent extension officers and other functionaries whose services were essential for the success of the farmers in Bophuthatswana.

Unibo also dedicated sufficient resources to produce graduates who ultimately made a truly worthwhile contribution to the agricultural sector. Adequate funding was availed to farmers although some farmers reportedly abused the system. In short, farmers were not left to their own devices. Those in villages were given good bulls to share. Boreholes were drilled for them, dams were built and water pumping equipment was supplied.

Suburbs mushroomed all over Bophuthatswana and decent houses were built according to everyone’s ability to pay. The Bophuthatswana Building Society (BBS) was at hand to advance loans to those who wanted to buy or build houses. With the benefit of hindsight, I think that Kgosi Mangope was deliberate and intentional about ensuring that never again would the old asbestos houses with no ablution facilities within, be built.

He was a man of high quality. No wonder he mockingly referred to RDP houses as chicken-runs which have no possibility of enhancing human dignity.

I stand to be corrected but I think that the first shopping mall ever to be built in South Africa, was Mega City in Mmabatho, followed by the ones in Mogwase, Ga-Rankuwa, Lehurutshe (Wilbedacht) and a number of other places that I don’t remember now.

I have specifically mentioned places that I have had the pleasure to use. Interestingly, unlike now, these shopping malls did not have the toxic effect of undermining and ruining existing shops and supermarkets in the villages and townships. Small businesses still flourished, malls notwithstanding.

Industrial complexes/zones like Babelegi, those in Mogwase, Ga-Rankuwa, Montshiwa, Tlhabane, to mention those I remember, engineered by the BNDC, mushroomed and provided much-needed jobs to many jobless people. Sadly, with the advent of our democratic dispensation those factories have ceased their operations. Some say they exploited the poor and paid slave wages etc.

Whatever the case might have been, compare that to the state of abject poverty that flows from the retrenchment of many because no one may not take up a piece job that offers less than the stipulated minimum payment but should rather subject themselves to the indignity of awaiting R350 per month and being forced to steal anything from fencing materials to livestock to make up for the difference between R350 and what is needed to survive.

It appears that noble as the objective behind the minimum wage is, blind adherence to it and the bureaucracy around getting an exemption from it have inadvertently conspired against poverty-alleviation and produced unitended but harmful consequences.

Sun City, Mmabatho Sun, Molopo Sun, Morula Sun, Thaba Nchu Sun, Tlhabane Sun, Taung Sun and the Corousel created many jobs but also introduced something that shook the South African hospitality industry to the core. The innovative approach to hospitality really shook this country and Southern Africa out of its slumber.

Bop was a go-to place especially over the weekend and holidays. Again I say that the Hotel School in Mahikeng provided the much-needed skills for the maintenance of the high standards that hotels and lodges in Bop had clearly committed themselves to uphold.

The aggressive development of world class game reserves like Pilanesberg, and Madikwe coupled with new and smaller yet richly fulfilling ones like Manyane and Botsalano also took the eco-tourism industry to even greater heights. As a one-time chairperson of game reserves in this province I am alive to the massive life-changing and educational opportunities they created but time and space does not allow me to articulate.

The uniquely designed and high capacity Mmabatho and Mabopane Stadia, and other sports centres and facilities, the creation of the premier soccer league where the likes of Kgosi Kwena Mangope’s Mmabatho Kicks had the opportunity to unearth and activate talent that lay dormant, all bear testimony to an unparalleled visionary leadership of Kgosi Lucas Manyane Mangope and the developmental grace that rested upon him. Tennis and other sport activities were not left out. Not even golf.

Think about the immeasurable impact of Mmabana in the development or honing in of a range of skills of the youth like dancing and the containment of waywardness by giving them something more meaningful to occupy themselves with after school, over weekends and during school vacations. Drunkenness, drug addiction and criminality were through these initiatives, denied space to be entrenched and stealthily spread through society and ruin our youth as they now have.

The strategically positioned airports in Mmabatho and Sun City were fully operational. An understanding of the size and thinking behind the runway of the Mmabatho International Airport would give you a sense of just how forward-looking Kgosi Manyane Mangope was.

The electrification of villages in the Bop territory was not ushered in by the post 1994 dispensation. Koffiekraal village where I was born and bred and many others we were beneficiaries of the Bop electrification agenda already when a new Government came into power in 1994.

The road that ran through our small village and many others were already tarred, gravel roads were regularly and properly maintained, clean water was already brought much nearer to our homes and most of the services that others only received much later in the broader South Africa we already had in Bop.

Lastly, one of the world’s top three recording studios was built by Kgosi Mangope in Mmabatho. The building that used to house it stare me in the face every time I take a walk around the estate where I reside. The studio is now derelict.

What if Kgosi Mangope was afforded the opportunity to lead the whole nation. Just imagine how much more he would have achieved for all South Africans and all other Africans, having regard to his undisputed developmental track record. Many will find it easy to lazily label Kgosi Manyane Mangope as a puppet of the apartheid regime, a sellout.

They will find it easy to hold themselves out as heroes notwithstanding their dismal failure to deliver on what they promised during the liberation struggle and are constitutionally obliged to deliver on.

Even thieves will possibly hold themselves out as worthier servants of the people although their track record is marred in unprecedented corruption. May we emulate Kgosi Mangope for his exemplary leadership in serving, empowering and protecting those he had vowed to serve and protect. A

few weeks ago I had a chat with Dr Somadoda Fikeni who from nowhere, not knowing that I was scheduled to deliver this lecture sponsored by his former employer, Unisa, said a denial of what Matanzima did through Unitra and, I paraphrase, the most beneficial development of Bophuthatswana by Mangope, would deny South Africa the opportunity to draw very insightful lessons from these men.

What a legacy!