KwaNdebele was a bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government as a semi-independent homeland for the Ndebele people. The homeland was created when the South African government purchased nineteen white-owned farms and installed a government.[citation needed]
The homeland was granted self-rule in April 1981. Siyabuswa was designated as its capital, but in 1986 the capital was relocated to KwaMhlanga. The KwaNdebele legislature expressed interest in seeking independence (as in the cases of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei) in May 1982 and some preparations were made, but an exceptional lack of viability in economic affairs along with land disputes prevented this from occurring.[3][4]