of South Africa in 1910. Early regency After the selection of her eldest son, Bhunu, as the successor to his father in 1889, Labotsibeni became the Ndlovukati or Queen mother. There is little doubt that in choosing Bhunu as the heir to his father the old queen mother, Tibati, and the members of the inner council were influenced by their knowledge of his mother's strength of character. It is said that King Mbandzeni had himself recommended her to be the mother of his heir. In the early years of Bhunu's minority Labotsibeni had to take second place to Tibati, who served as queen regent. While Tibati remained at the royal homestead of Nkanini, Labotsibeni established a new headquarters for her son a few kilometres away at Zombodze. There was some tension between the two rulers, which lasted until Tibati's death in October 1895, but by 1894–5 Labotsibeni had emerged as the stronger of the two. She played a leading role in opposition to the third Swaziland convention of 1894, which provided for the establishment, in February 1895, of a Transvaal protectorate over Swaziland. This replaced the tripartite system of administration involving Great Britain, the Transvaal, and the Swazi nation, that had been set up in 1890. It also represented a concession by the British to the claims of the Transvaal over Swaziland, though they were not prepared to allow Swaziland's incorporation into the Transvaal. It was at this time that Labotsibeni emerged as a remarkably intelligent, articulate, and astute spokesperson for the Swazi nation; she dominated the debate at indabas, and got the better of the argument at meetings with such representatives of the Transvaal as the vice-president, N. J. Smit, and the commandant-general, Piet Joubert, as well as with the republic's special commissioner in Swaziland, J. C. Krogh, and successive British consuls in Swaziland, James Stuart and Johannes Smuts. Although Bhunu had been installed as ngwenyama or king, with the title Ngwane V, in February 1895, Labotsibeni retained considerable authority. As queen mother she was, in terms of the unwritten constitution of the country, a dual monarch with political influence equal to that of the king, and with the supernatural power to make rain. Her position was strengthened by the reckless behaviour of Bhunu, who established his own base at Mampondweni in the Mdzimba mountains above Zombodze. When he was implicated in the murder of Labotsibeni's senior induna, Mbhabha