Nikisi Feni and Mabaso Siqila were said to be the leaders of ‘recalcitrant Natives’ in Xengxe Location, near King William’s Town, Eastern Province [now Eastern Cape].
The document motivating their banishment reported that an ‘attitude of passive hostility in some cases, and active antagonism in others, to all rehabilitation schemes and administrative measures’ had been observed to be ‘prevalent and growing in almost all Native areas in King Williams Town and surrounding districts.’ The complaint was that the authority of appointed chiefs and headmen was being undermined and it was increasingly difficult to govern these areas.
In Xengxe location, Feni and Siqila were accused of being associated with ‘threats of violence and acts of open defiance’ and of having ‘unsettling effect on the Natives.’ It was requested that they be banished to avoid open revolt.
They were both banished on 14 May 1952 to the Mafeking district of the Northern Cape, (now North West Province). There is no proof that Feni’s banishment order was withdrawn.
• Contribution by Professor S. Badat on Banishment, Rhodes University, 2012. From the book, Forgotten People - Political Banishment under Apartheid by Professor S. Badat.