The documentation related to the banishment of Gubuzela Ngubane provides an account of the historical process by which the Ntanzi community came in the 19th century to find ‘refuge with the Bomvu tribe, which inhabited the Umvoti Valley, Greytown District, Natal [now KwaZulu-Natal].’
Tensions between the Ntanzi and Bomvu communities developed in the 1940s, allegedly because Nembe Ntanzi, the hereditary leader of the Ntanzi section, ‘was dismissed from the office of induna [headman] by Nonkenkeza Ngubane, the Acting Chief of the Bomvu tribe.’
In June 1953, fighting broke out and resulted in the death of a number of people, for which the Bomvu Chief Gubuzela Ngubane was blamed. The Native Affairs Department [NAD] suspended Gubuzela Ngubane from the chieftainship for an indefinite period.
An enquiry by the Native Commissioner (NC) at Melmoth apparently confirmed the culpability of Gubuzela Ngubane and his brothers, Mzinto and Nkume and another, Mabunu Mkize. It recommended the deposition of Ngubane and his banishment along with his brothers and Mkize. They were banished to Kalkspruit Native Trust Farm No. 812, Pietersburg District, Northern Transvaal, [now Limpopo Province] on 19 February 1954.
Gubuzela Ngubane's banishment order was withdrawn on 9 August 1968, though he had been granted a temporary permit to return to the Greytown District.
Contribution by Professor S. Badat, on Banishment, Rhodes University, 2012