Thandathu Jongilizwe Mabandla
Wikipedia’s article on Thandathu Jongilizwe Mabandla (16 August 1926 to 22 December 2021), also called Chief Justice Mabandla, describes him as a Xhosa chief from Alice in the Eastern Cape who was born at Tyume and died aged 95. It says he finished school at Lovedale High School in 1948, taught at primary schools in the Ciskei until April 1959, and in 1963 completed a diploma in Bantu Law and Tradition at the Jongilizwe College for Sons of Chiefs and Headmen.
Chief of the Bhele
The article says that in 1959 he began his reign as chief of the Bhele tribe, which lasted until his death. It does not say how the Mabandla family came to lead the Bhele chiefdom or give its genealogy, and we have not found that elsewhere. Wikipedia’s Mfengu article calls him a Fengu leader; the biography article calls him a Xhosa chief and does not use that word, and we do not know how the family itself describes its origins. See Mfengu.
Ciskei
According to the article he became the first chief executive councillor of the Ciskei Territorial Authority (its text gives 1 January 1968, its infobox 1 January 1969) and, on 1 August 1972, the first Chief Minister of Ciskei, serving until 21 May 1973. It says Lennox Sebe, a member of his cabinet, broke with him in 1972 and formed the Ciskei National Independence Party, which succeeded in 1973 so that Sebe became Chief Minister, and that in 1978 Mabandla and other members crossed over to that party and Ciskei became a one-party state. It says he married Pumla Ndamase, a daughter of King Victor Poto Ndamase of West Pondoland, on 6 January 1960, and that his children included Prince Langalivelile Ntabayikhonjwa Mabandla and Loyiso Mabandla. Wikipedia’s Mfengu article adds that rivalry with the Rharhabe Xhosa in the Ciskei and Transkei culminated in Sebe replacing “Fengu leader” Mabandla in 1973.
The Ciskei was an apartheid “homeland”, and this page treats his roles as they are recorded, not as an endorsement of that system.
What we have not read
The article cites South African History Online, a 1973 official publication, a Dispatch Live obituary (23 December 2021), rulers.org, Ciskei legislative debates, Vail (1989) and a Rharhabe genealogy page; we have read none of them, and the SAHO page we tried was not found. We do not know who leads the Mabandla family or the Bhele chiefdom now.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have not found a published Mabandla praise text or confirmed totem, so we are printing neither. If you belong to the Mabandla family and recite your izithakazelo, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
Do you belong to the Mabandla family? Tell us your praises and your family’s history and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.