The 1990 Ciskei coup d'état was a bloodless military coup in

Ciskei Ciskei ( , meaning ''on this side of Great Kei River,

he river The He River is a tributary of the Xi River in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it ...

Kei''), officially the Republic of Ciskei (), was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of , almost entirely surrounded b ...

, an

unrecognised state A sovereign state is a state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may also refer to a constituent country, or a ...

and a nominally independent

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

for the

Xhosa people The Xhosa people ( , ; ) are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group that migrated over centuries into Southern Africa eventually settling in South Africa. They are the second largest ethnic group in South Africa and are native speakers of the Xho ...

, which took place on 4 March 1990. The coup was led by the then 37-year-old Brigadier

Oupa Gqozo Joshua Oupa Gqozo (; born 10 March 1952) was the military ruler of the former homeland of Ciskei in South Africa. Early life Gqozo was born in Kroonstad, Orange Free State on 10 March 1952, the son of a Christian minister. In Afrikaans, Oupa ...

, the Chief of Staff Intelligence of the

Ciskei Defence Force The Ciskei Defence Force (CDF) was established during March 1981 from the 141 Battalion of the South African Defence Force (SADF). It was the defence force of Ciskei, a bantustan that was controlled by the apartheid regime of South Africa. The ...

, against the government of President for Life

Lennox Sebe Lennox Leslie Wongama Ngweyesizwe Sebe (26 July 1926 – 23 July 1994) was the chief minister of the Xhosa bantustan of Ciskei after its self-rule in 1972, and the nominally independent country's first president from 1983. He was the Chief of ...

( CNIP), who was on a state visit to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

at the time. The coup was followed by widespread rioting and looting, prompting Gqozo to request that the South African government send

SADF The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...

troops to help restore order. Subsequently, Gqozo's

military government A military government is any government that is administered by a military, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue or by an occupying power. It is usually administered by military personnel. Types of m ...

survived several coup attempts, most notably the February 1991 attempt, led by the Chief of the Ciskei Defence Force, Brigadier

Andrew Jamangile Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

. Gqozo stayed in power until his resignation in March 1994, several weeks before the reunification of Ciskei with South Africa after the first post-

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

.All Bantustans (both nominally independent and self-governing) were dismantled and their territories reincorporated into South Africa with effect from 27 April 1994, in terms of section 1(2) and Schedule 1 of the

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 The Interim Constitution was the fundamental law of South Africa from during the first non-racial general election on 27 April 1994 until it was superseded by the final constitution on 4 February 1997. As a transitional constitution it requ ...

, the so-called "Interim Constitution" which abolished apartheid in South Africa. The text of this Interim Constitution, which came into force on 27 April 1994, coinciding with the beginning of the first democratic elections, is available online at Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 as of 27 April 1994.

References

Military coups in Ciskei Politics of Ciskei 1990 in South Africa March 1990 in South Africa 1990s coups d'état and coup attempts {{SouthAfrica-hist-stub

See also

References