Bophuthatswana was a former Bantustan (homeland) in the north of South Africa. It had a surface area of approximately 40,000 kmē and consisted of seven enclaves dispersed over the former South African provinces of Cape Province, Transvaal and Orange Free State. The capital Mmabatho was situated in an area bordering Botswana. The homeland was set up to house Tswana speaking peoples. In 1983 it had more than 1,430,000 inhabitants.
In 1971 Bophuthatswana was given self-rule and it became independent on December 5, 1977. The people forced to live there lost their South African nationality. Kgosi Lucas Mangope was appointed head of state. After a failed coup in 1988, Mangope was forcibly reinstated by South Africa. In the beginning of 1994 he was replaced by an interim government. On April 27 of the same year Bophuthatswana was reincorporated in South Africa, together with the nine other homelands.
Location: The Tswana people are associated with the country of Botswana, whose name means "Land of the Tswana." But most of the people of this language group live in the northeastern part of South Africa.
This densely populated area is called Bophutatswana, meaning "The Place of Gathering of the Tswana." Lehurutse, Mafeking and Mmabatho are major cities on the South African side.
Scattered segments of that area were called Bophutatswana as one of the home lands in apartheid South Africa.
Impala's mines are located within Bophutatswana, classified as an independent homeland state by South Africa and not subject, therefore, to South African labor laws.
Bophutatswana bans the fl National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from operating within its territory.
It is clear, however, that NUM has a strong, unofficial presence at Impala and that this was a key factor in both the strike actions and the subsequent dismissals.
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