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Makgabeng area - the Matlala and Malebogo – used strategic mountain
strongholds of the Matlala mountains, Makgabeng mountains and the
Blouberg mountains, they still needed firearms to defend themselves.
Tension between the Boers and the Malebogo polity towards the end of the
nineteenth century further strengthened the necessity to acquire more
firearms. That is why Kgoši Ratšhatšha - and his predecessor - Kgoši
Matsiokwane, were inclined to push Bahananwa subjects into the migrant
labour system, acquiring a large number of guns. This armament race was
proven by the massive amount of guns used by the Bahananwa during their
war with the Boers in 1894 533 .
Another way of getting Blacks to become migrant labourers was through an
established system of recruitment. This systematic kind of recruiting Blacks
into cheap labour system was mostly evident within the mining sector which
was mostly affected by the need of cheap labour. In this sector, the
Chamber of Mines formed the Rand Native Labour Association in 1896, to
recruit Black mine workers and to establish centralised control over labour
recruitment 534 . In 1901 this was replaced by the Witwatersrand Native
Labour Association (WNLA) which recruited workers as far north as Malawi
(then Nyasaland) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) 535 . In 1912, the Native
Recruiting Corporation (NRC) was formed to take over the recruitment of
533 C. Sonntag, My friend Maleboch, p. 9.
534 J. Pampallis, Foundations of the new South Africa, p. 25.
535 Ibid, p. 25.
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