Lennox Sebe

Who was Lennox Sebe?

Lennox Leslie Wongamu Sebe was chief minister of the Xhosa bantustan of Ciskei, and the country's first president, after its self-rule in 1972.

Born in Belstone, near King William's Town, Sebe worked first as a school teacher before being appointed as a school principal in 1954. In 1968, Sebe was elected as a representative of the Ama Ntinde Tribe in the Ciskeian Territorial Authority and became responsible for Educational and Cultural Affairs, before transferring to the Agriculture portfolio in 1971.

Sebe founded the Ciskei National Independent Party and contested Ciskei's inaugural election in February 1973. He was elected to the Zwelitsha electorate and succeeded Chief Justice Mabandla to become the second Chief Minister of Ciskei on May 21, 1973. He would then become President when Ciskei was granted nominal independence from South Africa on 4 December 1981. Sebe declared himself President for Life in 1983.

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.