Between 1959 and 1962, eight people were banished from various districts of Mpondoland, [Eastern Province, now Eastern Cape]. They included some of those who constituted the leadership of the Hill Committee* and prominent traditional leaders opposed to BA (Bantu Affairs).
The Departmental Committee of Enquiry into Unrest in Eastern Pondoland had fingered twenty people as the ‘ringleaders’ of resistance, fourteen from Bizana and six from Lusikisiki (areas in the Eastern Province, now Eastern Cape). They included Hargreaves Mbodla, Solomon Madikizela Mtetunzima Ganyile and Theophilus Tshangela. Minister Christiaan de Wet Nel (Minister of Bantu Administration and Development) insisted that ‘the measures taken under the Native Administration Act have been promulgated at the request of the Native leaders themselves.’
Banishment orders for three of the revolt leaders, Mbodla, Madikizela and Tshangela were signed on 17 October 1960, but were only served in May 1962 as all three, in the interim, had been sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment. Mbodla and Madikizela were banished from Emonti Location, Bizana District,Eastern Province to the Driefontein Native Trust Farm,Vryburg district of the Northern Cape [now North West Province]. Documentation related to his banishment described Mbodla as an Evangelist at the Methodist Church and as particularly influential and articulate. He organised and spoke at meetings where the call was made for the Transkei to become a republic.
Hargreaves Mbodla's order was withdrawn on 4 July 1972.
* The Pondoland Revolt was generally referred as 'Nonqulwana' after the First Hill Committee. While this movement clearly involved African National Congress (ANC) supporters, the revolt appears to have been a local initiative in response to local grievances rather than a planned ANC campaign.
Contribution by Professor S. Badat, Rhodes University, 2012. From the book, Forgotten People - Political Banishment under Apartheid by Professor S. Badat