The future leaders of a democratic South Africa will need politically correct men in uniform to restore order in the violent black townships. There is no way to predict how Holomisa would do in a job requiring such a blend of delicacy and force. But no other senior black officer seems as well suited to the task as the man known fondly in the Transkei as “Comrade General.” Holomisa insists he has no governmental ambitions. “it is hot in politics,” he says. “I have already tasted power at the highest level, and I am not looking for fit].”
His political skills, however, have made him hugely popular in the Transkei and have earned him respect elsewhere in South Africa. “He stood up to [white] South Africa like no other bantustan leader ever has,” says Khehla Shubane of the Center for Policy Studies in Johannesburg. Holomisa could easily have been a black quisling. He was one of the first of his race to graduate from the South African Army College. He tacitly accepted the white regime’s homeland policy when he joined the Transkei Defense Force in 1976, rising quickly through the ranks. But soon after he took power with a bloodless coup in 1987, while Mandela was still in prison, Holomisa established strong ties with Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC). He adopted an openly hostile stance toward the white government, becoming the first homeland leader to call publicly for his fiefdom to be reincorporated in South Africa.
Although he wields the powers of a military strongman, Holomisa lives modestly; he shares an unassuming suburban house with his wife and three children and drives a Toyota Camry. He has never made good on his promise to hold free elections, and he has done little to improve the Transkei’s standard of living; his government still has to depend on Pretoria for about 75 percent of its revenue. But he has improved the quality of life, forcing people to keep streets and houses clean. He has enhanced his own status by inviting black guerrillas to operate on his territory. That provokes retaliation. Earlier this month, South African security forces attacked a house in Umtata, killing five teenagers suspected of involvement with black guerrillas.
The methods of Holomisa’s security forces can be equally harsh. After an unsuccessful coup attempt against him in 1990, his troops reportedly executed the ringleader within six hours of capturing him. In 1991, his agents allegedly kidnapped a businessman in Johannesburg who was accused of helping to plan the coup (he denied involvement). Last May a hit squad attacked the house of former policeman Bongani Wana, who was suspected of participating in the coup (Wana denied it). He fled before the gunmen arrived, but they abducted three housesitters and killed them. A Transkei source believes that the gunmen were armed by Holomisa’s military intelligence. The general told NEWSWEEK that a car spotted outside Wana’s house on the night of the raid was rented in the name of a Transkei intelligence agent. But he denied any knowledge of a plot to abduct Wana.
There is no sign that Holomisa’s human-rights record will deny him a role in the new national peacekeeping army, which will be under the joint control of the government, the ANC and other political groups. By early next year, that army is scheduled to operate alongside existing forces during a transitional period leading up to the country’s first fully democratic election, on April 27. According to a South African military source, the new force might consist of 10,000 soldiers and policemen, including 3,000 from current government units, 3,000 from the ANC and a few hundred from Holomisa’s army,
Holomisa also benefits from his personal ties to Mandela, who owns a country house outside Umtata. When the ANC leader went overseas last month to drum up investment in South Africa, Holomisa accompanied him on the entire three-week tour. The Young general says that When the Transkei is reabsorbed into a democratic nation, be merely wants to resume his military career. But Mandela’s patronage, and his own driving ambition, could make Bantu Holomisa one of the most powerful military men in the new South Africa.
