Kabokweni

Kabokweni (also known as Ngodini) is a town in Ehlanzeni District Municipality in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Kabokweni was formally established in 1967 as the first residential township in the KaNgwane Bantustan. In 1968 the Bantu Affairs Department of the Apartheid state forcibly moved over 3000 people from the town of White River to Kabokweni. Today, it is a town of over 20 000 people.

Archeology and Early History
The archeological record indicates that the area sounding Kabokweni has a long history of human habitation. In surrounding areas, there are many Khoe-San rock art sites which give clues about the presence, lives and worldviews of the earliest hunter gatherers who lived in the region. After around 400 CE, there is evidence that communities who farmed crops, forged metal and kept livestock (while still hunting and gathering) were living in wider region. Archeological remains from a site in Plaston, not far west from Nsikazi indicate that people kept livestock in the area from at least as early as 660 CE and belonged to the same or similar culture to the people who created the Lydenburg Heads. The presence of livestock, farming and metal working suggests the presence of Bantu-speakers from this period onward. The earliest named groups of people present in the Nsikazi region, which Kabokweni lies in were the Pai, Mapulana, and Ngomane. By the early 19th century, these societies were bordered to the south by the Swazi, to the west by the Pedi and to the east and northeast Tsonga speakers. The people living in the area were impacted by the increase in trade, especially in ivory from Maputo Bay. In the early to mid-19th century, offshoot chieftaincies from the increasingly powerful Swazi Kingdom established a growing presence in the region.

Colonialism and Apartheid
Before the 1960s, Kabokweni was known as Ngodini, meaning "the hole" in SiSwati in reference to the fact that it is under a watershed, some lay 1000 feet below the nearby town of White River. In 1936, Ngodini formally became part of the Nsikazi Native Reserve under the Native Trust and Land Act, 1936. The history of Kabokweni is closely connected to apartheid policies of forced removals. In preparation for the making of a residentail township for people who would commute to work in White River and Nelspruit, the apartheid government forced existing residents off the land into centralized "betterment" villages in surrounding areas. In May and June 1968, as part of an aggressive national policy to create separate Black and White areas, apartheid's Bantu Affairs Department forcibly moved the over three thousand residents of White River's Black location to the recently built township of Kabokweni. According to the Surplus People Project, many people living in and around the Kabokweni area were forcibly moved up to three or more times. The name "Kabokweni" is the Siswati adaptation of Charles Borquin's surname, the Bantu Affairs Commissioner who was responsible for relocating people to the township from White River. Soon after the removals, Kabokweni's population was 3310. By 1977, it was 7917. In 1975, Kabokweni became part of the Swazi Territorial Authority, which later became known as KaNgwane, the apartheid Bantustan for Swazi people, although people of diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds lived in Kabokweni and nearby areas. In the 1980s, conditions in KaNgwane were harsh, with many reporting to the Surplus People Project the difficulties of life with access to little land, the loss of livestock, a scarcity of drinking water and other basic services, few opportunities and high levels of violence.

Student Resistance and the Lowveld Massacre
Through various modes, many residents of Kabokweni resisted the violence, segregation and repression of the apartheid state. A strong student movement gained momentum in the 1980s, and in February 1986 students in Kabokweni led a school boycott and directed demonstrations of crowds as strong as 4,000 people against Bantu Education. Kabokweni was not spared from the most repressive of the apartheid state's violence.After the apartheid security police killed student Mandla Lekhuleni, protests grew more intense, and the police arrested a number of student protestors and placed them on trial at the Kabokweni Magistrate's Court. On 11 March 1986, a crowd of thousands of young people gathered at the Kabokweni Magistrate's office to demonstrate against the trial. As the crowd gathered, apartheid police forces opened fire on the protestors. Police shot 83 activists, mostly in the back, and arrested 50, many of whom the security police tortured.

Post Apartheid
In the post-apartheid era, the population of Kabokweni has increased significantly and the physical footprint of the town has expanded outwards. The town has faced significant service delivery challenges, with extended, many months-long water outages forcing the Kabokweni community to rely on water purchased from water trucks and regularly turn to protest to make their grievances heard. Many people living in Kabokweni continue to commute to work in Mbombela and White River.

Today, Kabokweni falls under the Mbombela Local Municipality, within the wider Ehlanzeni District Municipality.

Kabokweni has more than 6 public schools and 3 private schools.

The Elijah Mango College of Higher Education, an institution established when Kabokweni was under KaNgwane, has become severely dilapidated, facing government neglect, and theft and vandalism in recent years. The local Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs has more recently promised to revive the facility.

Demographics
During the national census of 2011 the 8.24 km2 town housed an estimated 21,905 inhabitants, of which 98,3% were Black South Africans with 82% speaking siSwati as their home language.

Health services in Kabokweni
There are private and public health services in Kabokweni. Public facilities include:


 * Themba Hospital
 * Bhuga Community Health Centre
 * Gutshwa Clinic
 * Khumbula Clinic
 * Makoko Clinic
 * Zwelisha Clinic

Private facilities include general practitioners and the Dr Ntandoyenkosi Memorial U-Care Medical Centre.

Notable people

 * Robert Gumede
 * Elijah Mango