Ntlabati Jojo had been deposed of his status as headman in the late 1920s though by the 1940s, he was considered to be effectively the chief of a few locations. He is said to have led resistance to state measures, and surrendered ‘with twenty-one others. All but one were tried and convicted that same day.’
The Native Affairs Department accused Jojo of displacing his older brother Gawulibaso Kaiser Jojo as chief after sections of the community opposed ‘rehabilitation measures’ introduced in 1949 by the government, which were supported by Chief Gawulibaso.
The conflict led to opposition of the Bantu Affairs Department with contestation around the office of traditional leadership and this continued into the 1950s.
Ntlabati Jojo was banished from the Mount Ayliff district [in the Eastern Province, now Eastern Cape] to the Nqutu district in Natal[now KwaZulu-Natal] on 13 December 1951.His banishment order was withdrawn on 2 August 1961.
• Contribution by Professor S. Badat, on Banishment, Rhodes University, 2012. From the book, Forgotten People - Political Banishment under Apartheid by Professor S. Badat.