In a letter to the NAD [Native Affairs Department] Secretary dated 14 August 1958, the CM [Chief Magistrate] claimed that [Kaizer] Matanzima was keen on banishing four people: Abel Ntwana, Silumko Ntame, Edward Sineke Tyaliti and Tyutyu Michael Nyovane.
In correspondence with the NC [Native Commissioner] in Cala, Matanzima stated that ‘the presence of four men in that (Xhalanga) District, [Manzimale Location, Xhalanga District, Eastern Province [now Eastern Cape] is detrimental to the administration and development in that area. Their presence there is of no public interest and a danger as they are against the Chiefs, the Government, and are anti-White.’
He added that he had ‘reliable information’ that there was a plan ‘to assassinate’ some ‘leading personalities in our administration on the Mau Mau lines.’ He appealed for ‘support of the Government otherwise our lives are at stake;’ in the same breath, however, he stated that ‘personally I have not got much to fear because I have complete control of the situation in the District of St. Marks and if these four men”¦are removed from Cala to a place outside Transkei I shall be able to handle the remainder of their followers.’
Of the four identified for banishment Edward Sineke Tyaliti was particularly highlighted by the CM in a letter to the BAD [Bantu Affairs Department] Secretary on 1 August 1959. The others were considered to ‘have been quiescent for some time, but E.S Tyaliti is still active.’
On 12 October 1959, an order was signed by the Governor-General banished Edward Sineke Tyaliti from Manzimahle Location [Eastern Cape] to Tabaans Location in the Sibasa District, [Northern] Transvaal[now Tshivhase, Limpopo Province]. He left Xhalanga on 28 October 1959.
The documentation motivating for Tyaliti’s banishment noted that he was an active supporter of both the African National Congress (ANC) and the All African Convention [AAC], and also played a leading role in the Cala African Parents’ Association, an AAC affiliate. It was claimed that through this association he exercised a negative influence on local parents and schoolchildren. He was also the leader of a group in the Xhalanga district that was ‘against all policy that had as its goal the betterment of the land/area;’ they spread false information about state policies and held illegal meetings at night, where they conspired on how to fight these policies.
Tyaliti and his co-conspirators were charged with employing ‘insulting and condescending attitudes’ towards BAD employees at official meetings. Several of these meetings were allegedly broken up by them. The Tyaliti group also ignored the orders of the chief and continually threatened ‘peace-loving natives’ with death, or burned down their houses. Finally, it was stated that the chief requested the removal of this ‘andersdenkende groep’ (differently minded group), and that if Tyaliti was banished it would help to deal with the influence of the ‘andersdenkende groep.’
Edward Tyaliti left behind two children and a partner, who took on the responsibility of caring for the children and homestead, ‘selling a sheep when the crops failed and the family was desperate for food.’ He escaped into exile in Lesotho, meeting the Joyi’s, Nkosiyane and Anderson Ganyile. Constantly longing to see his partner and family, he risked arrest, imprisonment and re-banishment to visit them clandestinely for a few hours.
He did not accept the state’s offer of a conditional release, saying this would be ‘selling his brothers.’ His order was withdrawn on 7 November 1967. He died in exile in 1974.