Klaas Matlala was arrested in the fields where he resided at Matlala's Location, Pietersburg District, [Northern] Transvaal [now Polokwane, Limpopo Province] in 1952 and taken to a police van, which already held other compatriots.
He was a Ma-Congress [African National Congress - ANC)] supporter and key member of the kgoro, and had opposed the Native Commissioner’s (NC) decision that the Matlala community should elect another chief. He was warned that he would be banished if he continued to refuse to co-operate with the Native Affairs Department (NAD), but bravely persisted with his opposition.
On 3 June 1953, Matlala and his compatriots were taken to Sandfontein, and were served with banishment orders. The next day he was given £2 [approximately R4]in Pietersburg and then transported to Bushbuckridge, Pilgrims Rest District, EasternTransvaal [now Mpumalanga Province].
Initially, he earned his income from building houses; thereafter he found a job as a cleaner with the Bantu Administration Department (BAD), which paid £6 a month.
His partner, Mathildo, said she learnt that he was in Bushbuckridge after a month when Klaas wrote. She worked on a farm to earn money to visit him from time to time. Matlala also received money and clothing from the Human Rights Welfare Committee (HRWC). His response to a coat that the HRWC had sent to him was that ‘when I die you must cover my body with it because this coat showed me that I was not forgotten.’
Klaas Matlala’s banishment order was withdrawn on 9 February 1966.