Sekgopela Mashile supported his older brother’s, Matsiketsane Mashile, recognition as a Chief and voiced opposition to the manner in which tribal authorities had been demarcated.
Sekgopela “Winias “Mashile, from Native Trust Farm Ludlow, Pilgrim’s Rest District, Transvaal [Mpumalanga]was banished to the Binfield Park Native Trust Farm, Victoria East District, [Eastern Province, now Eastern Cape] on 27 June 1963.
He was allowed to return home in 1974 and his banishment order was withdrawn on 24 February 1975 because he enjoyed “the trust of the [Chief] and his Cabinet in Lebowa [in today’s Limpopo Province].” However, the Native Commissioner still saw Sekgopela Mashile ‘as a threat to public order’, (and he) was immediately placed under house arrest.
In 1978, while still formally under arrest, he successfully ran for the Lebowa Legislative Assembly.
• Contribution by Professor S. Badat, Rhodes University, 2012. From the book, Forgotten People - Political Banishment under Apartheid by Professor S. Badat