Ciskei
The Ciskei Defence Force (CDF) was established during March 1981 from 141 Battalion of the SADF as part of 21 Battalion. Gqozo was moved from the SADF to the CDF as part of the officer core. On 4 December 1981, Ciskei was granted nominal independence from South Africa and became a Bantustan with Lennox Sebe as president.
In 1983, Sebe's brother, Lieutenant General Charles Sebe, head of Ciskei's intelligence service, attempted a coup. He was arrested but later in 1986 he escaped from prison and made his way to nearby Transkei. Charles, in 1987, orchestrated the kidnapping of Lennox Sebe's son Kwame.
During this time, Colonel Oupa Gqozo was sent to Pretoria as military attaché. He became a brigadier on 1 April 1988. Brigadier Gqozo returned to Ciskei as Chief of Staff Intelligence during December 1989. In January 1990, Gqozo completed his term of duty and was honoured with the Order of Good Hope.
On 4 March 1990, he staged his own coup in Ciskei in the absence of Lennox Sebe who was on state visit to Hong Kong. Kwame Sebe was also planning to stage a coup, but failed to get it off the ground and was kept in military custody together with other government officials. In November of the same year, another coup planned by Colonel Guzana and former military council member Major Peter Howsa was stopped. Again in February 1991, another coup was attempted, this time by the head of Ciskei’s Defence Force, Brigadier Aaron Jamangile.
In mid-1991, Gqozo formed the African Democratic Movement to counter the influence of the African National Congress in the region. In December of that year, he formed part of the delegation at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) to discuss South Africa's new political dispensation. In March 1992 Gqozo accused the African National Congress of planning to remove him from power in Ciskei.
Read more about this topic: Oupa Gqozo