difference between south africa townships and homelands

Of the 109 members in the regional parliament, 45 were elected and 64 were held by ex officio chiefs. Although the first election was contested and won by the Democratic Party, whose founder Chief Victor Poto was opposed to the notion of Bantustan independence, the government was formed by the Transkei National Independence Party. The South African government set up the area as one of the two homelands for Xhosa-speaking people in Cape Province, the other being Ciskei it was given nominal autonomy by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1963. Main articles: History of South Africa and Apartheid Establishment

In 1994, it was reintegrated into its larger neighbour and became part of the Eastern Cape province. Throughout its existence, it remained an internationally unrecognised, diplomatically isolated, politically unstable de facto one-party state, which at one point broke relations with South Africa, the only country that acknowledged it as a legal entity. Transkei represented a significant precedent and historic turning point in South Africa's policy of apartheid and 'separate development' it was the first of four territories to be declared independent of South Africa. Its capital was Umtata (renamed Mthatha in 2004). It was, along with Ciskei, a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, and operated as a nominally independent parliamentary democracy. Transkei ( / t r æ n ˈ s k eɪ, t r ɑː n-, - ˈ s k aɪ/, meaning the area beyond Kei), officially the Republic of Transkei ( Xhosa: iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994.

Difference between south africa townships and homelands