Game Of Thrones (9) - The Nkulumane Question

By the end of the year, the immediate threat posed to the Bangwato and others in the region by the Tati gold discovery had also receded. The nature of the ore and its then relative remoteness limited the potentially disruptive influx of European prospectors. Cape Colony efforts to get London to establish an imperial presence in the region at the time proved futile, though the seeds for the subsequent Tati Concession had been sewn.

More decisive was the thwarting of Pretoria’s designs in the area. During the first half of 1860s, politics within South African Republic had been unsettled by internal strife amongst the Transvaal Boers, only stabilising with the return to power of Marthinus Pretorius. The success of a united front of the Bangwato and Amandebele over Tati, which closely followed the ultimatum issued by Sechele, Gaseitsiwe and Montshiwa warning against Boer encroachment in Lehurutshe, had the combined effect of checking the ever ambitious President.