The system of Black authorities and the reforms brought about in the agricultural sphere were not unreservedly accepted in the homelands. Opposition came from two sides. On the one hand, there were the people of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, who rejected the system of Black authorities because it aimed to restore the tribal system and the power of the headmen, divided the Black population into ethnic units, and ignored the Black man's demand for representation in the country's central government. On the other hand, there were the rural crop and stock farmers who did not like the new measures relating to overgrazing, soil erosion, and stock limitation. The opposition to the system of Black authorities and the agricultural reforms resulted, in some homelands, in arson, violence and murder.
On 6 June, 1960, at Nguza Kop in Pondo-land, the police fired on a number of insurgents and eleven were killed. However, this did not mean the end of all opposition in Pondoland. As an act of revenge the insurgents killed several headmen and others who had been co-operating with the government. It was to be several years before the dissatisfaction in Pondoland died down.