Twalimfene Joyi, alias Twalimfene Gobinamba, was a sub-Chief from Thembuland, Umtata District (Eastern Province, now Eastern Cape), and a cousin of Bangilizwe Joyi (a banished person who fled into exile to Lesotho). He was reported to have openly told the Under Secretary of the Native Affairs Department (NAD) that he was opposed to betterment. He also allegedly said that “all those who accepted Bantu Authorities and other schemes brought by the Government should be killed.” On 14 May 1958, he was banished to the Native Trust Farm Magagapere No.
Mr Twalimfene Joyi was banished to Kuruman in 1968. In 1969 he was charged under the Terrorism and Suppression of Communism Acts along with eleven other African National Congress (ANC) members in Pietermaritzburg. On completion of his 5-year sentence, Mr Joyi was banned and restricted to Umtata, Transkei in May 1974. Mr Joyi was reportedly detained under the Transkei Proclamation R400 and died on 15th February 1977. Other reports said that Mr Joyi had been in a shooting incident involving a traffic officer on 23 March 1976 and that sometime after this he had disappeared, his body subsequently being found in the Bashee River near Idutywa by children. His body was buried but later exhumed for identification after a report of his death was received by police. A first post-mortem revealed that his death was not caused by drowning. The results of a second post-mortem, conducted by a Cape Town pathologist, Dr W Bunge, were only made known to police and members of Mr Joyi's family.
Some sources say that while Mr Joyi most probably was in detention, he may also have been confused with his brother Mr A and Chief B Joyi, who were also in detention at that time. In response to a question in parliament on 29 March 1983 regarding Mr Joyi's detention and death, the minister of law and order said that there was no record of such a person being detained under security legislation, and unless further information was made available it was impossible to ascertain whether such a person had in fact been detained.