[6] The area comprising former native reserves was set up as the only homeland for Tswana-speaking people in 1961 and administered by the Tswana Territorial Authority.

Arguing in favour of independence, President Mangope claimed that the move would enable its population to negotiate with South Africa from a stronger position: "We would rather face the difficulties of administering a fragmented territory, the wrath of the outside world, and accusations of ill-informed people.

[10] During a parliamentary debate in the UK on 6 December 1977, Foreign Secretary David Owen replied in the negative when asked "whether Her Majesty's Government intend to recognise travel documents issued by the authorities of ... Bophuthatswana for the purpose of admitting visitors to the United Kingdom".

[11] While the majority of news reports echoed these official declarations, there were others which opined that Western critics should "suspend judgment for a time",[12] and despite its generally critical stance on South Africa's policies, Time magazine wrote that Bophuthatswana had "considerable economic potential" with an expected $30 million a year coming from mining revenues.

On 10 February 1988, Rocky Malebane-Metsing of the People's Progressive Party (PPP) became the president of Bophuthatswana for one day when he took over the government through a military coup.

A statement by the defence force said "serious and disturbing matters of great concern" had emerged, citing Mangope's close association with a multimillionaire Soviet émigré Shabtai Kalmanovich.

[16] Subsequently, the South African Defence Force invaded Bophuthatswana and Mangope was reinstated and continued his term unabated.

The New York Times reported that seven people had been killed and 450 wounded "after police officers in armoured cars fired their rifles into the crowds and used tear gas and rubber bullets".

After Mangope had asked for help from the South African government, he declared a state of emergency and cut telephone links to the territory "for political reasons", claiming that "normal laws had become inadequate".

This resulted in increasing unrest and 40 people were wounded when Bophuthatswana Defence Force troops opened fire on striking civil servants.

With unrest growing and rumors of ANC supporters massing at Bophuthatswana's borders, Mangope invited General Constand Viljoen, head of the right-wing Afrikaner Volksfront, to immediately assist in keeping the peace.

Uniformed members of the AWB on an armed incursion to the Mmabatho/Mafikeng area shot at unarmed civilians blocking the road, injuring and killing many.

After the media were allowed to photograph the badly injured prisoners, they were then executed at point-blank range by a Bophuthatswana policeman, Ontlametse Bernstein Menyatswe.

[9] Additional revenues came from the Sun City casino, which was a day trip from Johannesburg and Pretoria, where gambling was illegal under the National Party government, as it was throughout all of South Africa.

Bop TV was also available in some townships like Soweto, for Tswana people (who were ostensibly citizens of Bophuthatswana), but the signal was also watched by white South Africans seeking a more entertaining alternative to the SABC.

[29][30] Bophuthatswana Recording Studios, also known as BRS or BOP, was constructed in 1991 as an effort to raise the international profile of South Africa.

[8] It was organized into six military regions, and its ground forces included two infantry battalions, possessing two armoured personnel carriers.