When King Rharhabe died in battle, Ndlambe was requested by the councillors of deceased Mlawu to provide them with an heir for the Great House.
Indeed, the two children were found and thus the sons of his deceased elder brother were brought by the councillors to Ndlambe's kraal to select a successor.
During the minority of Ngqika, Ndlambe became regent, assisted at times by the young Prince's mother Yese; a woman largely known for her salacious appetite in men and would in later years have a negative influence to her son's reign.
She had a notorious sexual relationship with the colourful Afrikaaner interpreter Coenraad de Buys, which did not sit well within the conservative Xhosa society.
As Ndlambe was teaching the young Ngqika the art of being a fine ruler, Ngqika who now had just emerged from the Xhosa custom of ukwaluka, sought to take the sovereignty from his uncle by force, suspected to have been at the influence of his mother Yese and his father's old councillors, who had hinted to the impressionable young Prince that Ndlambe sought to usurp his throne.
As the tensions grew, Ndlambe left the great place which at the time was located at Xhukwane, Debe Nek with his councillors and a number of followers loyal to him and settled at Xuxuwa near today Fort Beaufort.
Simmering tensions and accusations of cattle theft led to the unsuccessful assault by 4,000 to 10,000 Xhosa warriors on a garrison of several hundred British troops.