Mangope, Lucas Manyane (1923-2018), a South African traditional leader and politician, was the president of the homeland of Bophuthatswana. He served in this position from 1977 until the election of South Africa’s first multiracial government in 1994. See South African homelands .
After training to be a schoolteacher, Mangope succeeded his father as chief of the Motswedi-Barutshe-Bu-Manyane people in 1959. He served as chief councilor of the executive of the Tswana Territorial Authority, then from 1972 as elected first chief minister of the homeland of Bophuthatswana. In 1977, the government of South Africa declared Bophuthatswana an independent state—a status not recognized by the rest of the world—with Mangope as its president. Mangope made improvements in people’s education, but he was a conservative and an opponent of the African National Congress (ANC), the main political voice for blacks in South Africa. Mangope held on to power largely with the support of the South African government. In 1988, he survived a coup with the help of South African security forces who entered Bophuthatswana to control the situation. Following the elections of April 1994, people in all the homelands were recognized as South African citizens again, and Mangope lost power.
Mangope was born on Dec. 27, 1923, in Motswedi, northwest of Zeerust, in what is now North West province. He died on Jan. 18, 2018.
See also North West (History) .
