Sigcau, son of Mqikela
South African History Online’s record of the death of Mqikela on 28 October 1887 says he was succeeded by his son Sigcawu (Sigcau). The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, in its determination on the Mpondo kingship dispute, records the claimant’s testimony that Mqikela had three wives (Masarhili of the great house, who had no male issue; the mother of Cetshwayo, in the right-hand house; and Manxele, the mother of Mhlanga, iqadi to the great house), that Manxele refused to hand over her son to the great house, and that Sigcau, “a son of Mqikela born out of wedlock”, was therefore legitimised (ukuhlahla) and adopted into the great house and succeeded Mqikela. The page is one party’s account as the Commission recorded it, and we have not read the Commission’s finding on this point or the respondent’s version of it.
The 1890s
John Clarke’s piece in the Mail & Guardian (5 July 2013), which draws on what King Justice Sigcau told him and on the writer’s work with the Sigcau family, says Sigcau felt deceived by Rhodes, was forced to capitulate to colonial rule in 1894 with Cape Mounted Riflemen massed on the border, and was imprisoned by government proclamation on 16 June 1895 for siding with his chiefs, who were resisting the hut tax. It says a chief justice later ruled the proclamation repugnant to the principle of the law. That article is partly opinion and the author is close to one side of the dispute, so we use only its dates and events.
The line in the Commission’s record
The claimant’s testimony, as the Commission records it, is that Sigcau had two sons, Toli of the right-hand house and Marhelane, first-born of Majali the great wife, and that Marhelane succeeded Sigcau, married many wives, and died in 1921, leaving Mandlonke, adopted into the great house by the childless Mankosinani, as a minor with his uncle Mswakeli regent from 1921 to 1935. It records that Mandlonke ascended in 1935 and died without issue on 25 November 1937. The Commission then heard a dispute about the succession, between Zanozuko Sigcau, who says he descends through Nelson’s union with Mandlonke’s great wife Magingqi, and King Justice Mpondombini Sigcau, son of Botha. See Mpondo.
The later dispute
Niren Tolsi’s Mail & Guardian report (29 July 2011) says Botha Sigcau was installed after Mandlonke’s death by a commission set up by Governor-General Patrick Duncan, that the Nhlapo Commission found he was “a creature of the statute” and that custom had not been followed, that it found Zanuzuko Sigcau, Nelson’s grandson, the rightful leader, that President Zuma confirmed this and that Zanuzuko was inaugurated in April 2011, and that Mpondombini Sigcau, Botha’s son, challenged this in court. Clarke’s 2013 piece says that the Constitutional Court ruled on 13 June 2013 that President Zuma had acted illegally in deposing King Justice Sigcau, who had died before the judgment. We have not read any judgment. The dispute is live and we take no side; the later events are not covered here beyond these two reports.
Botha Sigcau
Wikipedia says Botha Sigcau (about 1913 to 1 December 1978) ruled as king of Eastern Pondoland from 1939 to 1976 and was the first President of Transkei from 1976 to 1978, that critics said he lacked legitimacy under Pondo custom and that the 1960 Mpondo revolt demanded his removal. It does not name his father.
What we have not read
We have not read the Commission’s reasons or finding, the court judgments, Stapleton’s work on Faku and the later kings, or Mbeki’s The Peasants’ Revolt. Wikipedia has no article on Sigcau kaMqikela that we could find. We found no Sigcau royal-house account on a page we could open.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no recorded praises or totem for the Sigcau, so we are printing none. If you belong to the Sigcau royal house and recite its izibongo, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- South African History Online: Chief Mqikela dies
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the amaMpondo kingship dispute (Zanozuko Sigcau v Mpondombini Justice Sigcau)
- John G. Clarke, Mail & Guardian: History is on the side of the amaMpondo (5 July 2013)
- Niren Tolsi, Mail & Guardian: Power and patronage in Pondoland (29 July 2011)
- Wikipedia: Botha Sigcau
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