TRANSKEI BATTLE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 11

TRANSKEI BATTLE

Chief’s Men And Poqo

(N.Z .P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) SNGCOBO (The Transke-i). February 13. Fighting has broken ont in the Transkei region of Cape Province between what are believed to be Poqo African nationalists and armed forces of Chief Kaiser Matanzima, it was officially learned today. The forces of the chief, who is head of the Transkei Territorial Authority, are supported by a body of the South African police. The fighting is taking place in the Ooflmvaba district, where Chief MJaitanaima lives. Reports so far indicate that ait least 200 armed tribesmen and police are fighting a large concentration of Poqo and other elements.

Fighting began last night when members of Poqo and other tribesmen attacked a headman, who called on Chief Matanzima for assistance.

Chief Matanzima and his personal bodyguard joined the chiefs troops, who were armed with spears, knives and battle-axes.

First reports said one serious casualty had been taken to hospital, so far. The elements fighting with Poqo were stated to be members of the Makuluspan

organisation, which is believed to be an offshoot of Poqo. Five white persons—two men, a woman and two girls —were hacked tn death and their caravan burned on the banks of the Bashee river, near Engoobo, last week. Police blamed the killings on Poqo, Which they described as a terrorist offshoot of the banned Pan-African Congress. Transkei Plan

The Transkei is scheduled to be an internally selfgoverning African State. It has a population of 1,258,000 Africans, 18,000 whites, and 13,760 coloureds. Observers in South Africa believe that if the Transkei scheme fails, apartheid will have failed. The Transkei lies between Natal and the eastern Cape, and is the first of eight planned Bantustans.

Some Africans in the territory regard Chief Matanzima as a “Government stooge” for co-operating in the Government’s plans for the territory. Meetings in the territory are banned under the Transkei Emergency Regulations, which have been in force since December, 1960, when tribal unrest flared in Pondoland, Cape Province. In the last few months more than 80 Africans have appeared in Transkei courts and 57 have been sent to prison for attending illegal Poqo meetings.