NDEBELE society was characterised by different classes.
There were the powerful royals and the weak, captives and non-captives, senior and junior, old and young, women and men.
Power was stored in relations that were underwritten by an ideology of lineage seniority and kinship.
In the upper level of the Ndebele state was the royalty who comprised the king and his relatives constituting a ruling aristocracy.
The royalty indeed enjoyed privileges and rights that were far above other groups in the Ndebele society.
They were the richest as they were given cattle by the king so as to make sure they did not constitute a threat to his position.
The royalty received reflected authority from the king. 
They were the prominent members of umphakathi. Mzilikazi’s brother-in-law, Maqhekeni Sithole and his cousin, Mncumbatha Khumalo, held influential positions, whereas Lobengula’s brothers: Ngubongubo, Sibambamu, Nyanda, Muntu, Silwane, Fezela and Mahlahleni were prominent as his inner advisers.
The refugees and captives of earlier decades and those who were acquired in the southwest were now coalesced into a nation, broadening the weight of the Ndebele state.
Some of them assumed powerful positions as chiefs and commanded a lot of respect from the king.
Under the abenhla (those from the North) social status that formed south of the Limpopo River, there emerged a third additional social strata of amaHole. 
AmaHole were those people who were assimilated into the Ndebele state within the Zimbabwean plateau.
They were the latest entrants into the Ndebele society.
The top and proud Zansi (those from the South) who left with the king from Zululand became a minority only identifiable through their Nguniisibongo (surname) such as Mkhize, Gatsheni, Khumalo, Mkwananzi, Hlabangane, Mabhena and Gumede.
Below the royalty were the Zansi who consisted of those people who left with Mzilikazi from Zululand in the 1820s and their descendants.
This group of people in the Ndebele society formed an aristocracy and claimed a number of privileges and rights far above other groups with the exception of the royalty.
The senior chiefs in the Ndebele state were drawn from this group.
They had power because they suffered with the king during the turbulent years of the Mfecane and they had fought for him in various battles of the migratory phase.
There was the Enhla group within the Ndebele society who comprised the Sotho and Tswana people and occupied a position below the Zansi. Mzilikazi incorporated these into the Ndebele state before crossing the Limpopo River.
They had suffered with the king since they accompanied the king up to Matabeleland.
The Enhla also had a claim to positions of authority and power too based on their longer association with the Zansi.
They largely occupied positions of headmen under the Zansi who occupied positions of chiefs.
Below the Enhla were the Hole group, which consisted of the Kalanga, Rozvi, Nyubi, Nyayi, Birwa, Venda and other indigenous people of the southwest who were incorporated into the Ndebele state mainly in the 1840s.
Some early observers had the impression that the Hole were treated as slaves in the Ndebele state.
The Hole were subordinated to the Zansi and Enhla groups socially and politically.
Even though they were belittled and looked down upon by others, they were not really enslaved to the Ndebele. 
After all, they were the largest group in the Ndebele society.
By the 1890s, up to 60 percent of the inner Ndebele state was of Hole origin.
The words Zansi, Enhla, and Hole, were taken to convey a sense of ethnic rigidity which ranked the Ndebele state into castes. 
The reality is that people continuously moved across these categories as they negotiated new alliances, usually by marriage, merit, and loan of cattle.
A respectable Hole was able to move closer to the Ndebele chiefs and could become richer than a relative of a chief who had fallen into low esteem. According to history, in the Matshetsheni isigaba, a Zansi man called Sinanga Khumalo was succeeded as a chief by a Hole man called Ntuthu Msimangu.
Ntuthu was succeeded by another Hole, Swina Nkala.
One controversial issue that made early observers describe the Ndebele state as authoritarian was the existence of captives. 
The Ndebele captured individuals as well as groups to incorporate into their society.
The captives were brought before the king for distribution.
The females who were old enough to be married were immediately distributed among their captors, especially chiefs.
The king took a percentage to reside in the capital and to work as royal servants.
These were termed imbovane. 
Those who remained at the capital as servants of the king received the best treatment, which led them to be fanatical supporters of the king.
Professor Ngwabi Bhebe, a distinguished writer, noted that any Ndebele man of substance such as amaqhawe (those who excelled in the military duties) who wanted to have a young captive, female or male, could ask for permission from the king.
Permission was granted only on full understanding that the applicant had the means of looking after a captive.
If the request was successful, the applicant would take the captive to his own home where the latter became, to all intents and purposes, a member of his ‘master’s’ family rather than a slave.
It is interesting to note that some captives enjoyed being Ndebele to the extent of voluntarily translating their totems from Shona to Isindebele.
Notable examples are of the Shumbas who changed to Sibanda, Nyangas who changed to Nkomo, Gumbos who changed to Msipa, Shiris who changed to Nyoni, Dzivas who changed to Siziba, Shokos who changed to Ncube and the Moyos to Nhliziyo.
In the Ndebele state, captured boys were drafted into Ndebele amabutho and underwent the same stages as any Ndebele boy.
Captured girls too grew up into womanhood in the same way as other Ndebele females and were either married by their own adopted fathers or by other men.
They were similarly regarded for lobola (bridewealth) purposes as the daughters of the captor.
The Ndebele state was a male-dominated society and as such women were perpetually considered to be minors (abesintwana). 
Their custody before marriage was vested in their fathers or eldest brothers where the fathers were deceased.
Upon marriage, the custody of women was transferred to that of their husbands.
Women were not allowed to partake in national issues such as war and they were not represented in the public forums such as umphakathi and izikhulu where national issues were debated and discussed.
Politics was a preserve of men.
Women could however affect national policy and politics in general indirectly through their husbands, brothers and sons who were prominent in the Ndebele state.
The categories of women followed the pattern of the social division or stratification of the Ndebele society into Zansi, Enhla and Hole.
At the top were royal women such as the sisters, wives and daughters of the king.
There were daughters, sisters, and wives of amaqhawe and other prominent men such as chiefs who were also influential.
There were also daughters, sisters and wives of Enhla men as well as daughters, sisters, and wives of the Hole men.
At the lowest level were captives who were still undergoing probation. Within the top ranks of women, was also the hierarchy of senior and junior wives.
The Enhla women enjoyed the ‘privilege’ of being married by the influential and rich Zansi men, although the Enhla men were not allowed to marry Zansi women. 
Zansi and Enhla men generally looked down upon Hole women.
However, the social stratification that divided the Ndebele society did not succeed in stopping the proud Zansi men from having illicit relationships with Hole women and subsequently produced belittled offspring termed incukubili (half-breeds).
It is crucial to note that both Mzilikazi and Lobengula’s policies of state expansion and consolidation emphasized increments to their population and social harmony within the state. This entailed encouraging intermarriages among different people of the Ndebele society.
In the Ndebele state, there were some few remarkably influential women like Lobengula’s sister, Mncengence who enjoyed reflected power and authority from her brother, though she was eventually accused of witchcraft and killed.
She stayed in the capital, and possessed a lot of cattle just like men.
She was consulted on Lobengula’s matrimonial affairs and as a favoured sister of the king; she had the privilege of advising the king on state politics.
The other influential woman was Lozikheyi Dlodlo, a senior wife of Lobengula. She was as powerful as any man in the Ndebele state.