Lennox Sebe

Lennox Leslie Wongama Ngweyesizwe Sebe (26 July 1926 – 23 July 1994) was the chief minister of the

Early life

Born in Belstone, near

Sebe was faced with leading an economically unviable state, with a population of one million, many of them Xhosa forced to relocate to the bantustan in the 1970s, during South Africa's apartheid regime.

Dictatorship

Immediately upon independence, Sebe consolidated power in a dictatorship, supported by the 1,000-strong military force. He crushed all opposition, including bitter protests against a transit fare strike in 1983 (most residents worked outside the bantustan, and relied on public transportation to get them to work). That same year, Sebe's brother, Lieutenant General Charles Sebe, head of Ciskei's intelligence service, attempted to overthrow the government. Though Charles Sebe was arrested, he escaped from prison in 1986 and made his way to nearby Transkei, where he continued to agitate against the regime. In 1987, he orchestrated the kidnapping of Sebe's son Khwane, who was held prisoner in Transkei until Sebe agreed to release political prisoners in exchange for his son.

Sebe visited

Sebe was overthrown by a military coup led by Brigadier General Oupa Gqozo on 4 March 1990 while on state visit to Hong Kong and charged with corruption and human rights violations.^[4] He died in 1994 after the reintegration to Ciskei in South Africa.

Sources

• Polakow-Suransky, S. (2010) The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, Pantheon Books: New York.
  ISBN 9780375425462
  .