He strongly opposed the British annexation of the Transvaal. At the battle of Ingogo, during the First Anglo-Boer War he was badly wounded and unable to fight at the Battle of Majuba Hill. After the war, he served as magistrate of Utrecht from 1882 to 1884. In 1884 he became the district commandant and the leader of a group of Boers who assisted Prince Dinuzulu during the power struggle in Zululand, against his brother Zibhebhu. At the Battle of Tshaneni on the 5th of June 1884 Dinuzulu and his warriors, with the help of some 100 Boers, defeated Zibhebhu.