Sizwe sama Yende
A Limpopo chief has failed in his Constitutional Court bid to cling to his position that Premier Stanley Mathabatha conferred to him under controversial circumstances three years ago.
Khayizeni Maswanganyi - who is a relative of ANC Member of Parliament, Joe Maswanganyi - escalated the matter to the apex court after the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his application to appeal a Polokwane High Court decision that effectively relegated him to be a commoner in the Giyani area.
The chieftaincy dispute started when Mathabatha bestowed Maswanganyi a certificate of recognition in 2020 despite Mkhacani Hlaneki and the Hlaneki Traditional Council having made an application in the Polokwane High Court to set aside a recommendation of the Kgatla Commission that guided Mathabatha to recognise Maswanganyi. Mathabatha’s decision saw six villages – Ka-Maswanganyi, N’wa-Makena, Dzingidzingi, Bode, Dingamanzi and Basane – which were under the Hlaneki Traditional Council being transferred to the Maswanganyis.
Eight Constitutional Court judges have ruled that “leave to appeal must be refused for lack of reasonable prospects of success.”
Spokesperson for the Hlaneki Traditional Council, Ndzalama Hlaneki, said: “This is the end of this case.”
POLOKWANE HIGH COURT SCOLDED MATHABATHA
Maswanganyi initially lost his position in 2022 after the Polokwane High Court granted Hlaneki an order setting aside the recommendations of the Kgatla Commission. The Kgatla Commission investigated 568 disputes involving senior traditional leaders, headmen and headwomen in the province, and issued its final report to Mathabatha on May 29 2017.
The Polokwane High Court excoriated Mathabatha for going ahead with appointing Maswanganyi, knowing fully well that Hlaneki had lodged an application.
Mathabatha’s decision to appoint Maswanganyi affected the jurisdiction of the Hlaneki Traditional Council in the Greater Giyani municipal area, as six villages – Ka-Maswanganyi, N’wa-Makena, Dzingidzingi, Bode, Dingamanzi and Basane – had to be transferred to Maswanganyi.
MATHABATHA ACCUSED OF BIAS
Many Limpopo traditional leaders have accused Mathabatha of showing bias by stripping legitimate leaders of their powers. As such, Mathabatha has lost many chieftaincy disputes. He has, however, through his spokesperson, repeatedly denied bias.
On April 18, the Thohoyandou High Court set aside Mathabatha’s decision to recognise Mandela Wilson Nnengwekhulu as a senior traditional leader of the land south of the Levhuvu River. The Davhana royal family had approached the court to set aside Mathababatha’s decision taken on April 25 2018 to restore the traditional leadership of the Nnengwekhulus because historical facts indicated that the Nnengwekhulus had the status of headmen.
Judge Matsaro Semenya also found a pattern of bias on the part of the Limpopo Commission on Traditional Disputes and Claims, which made a recommendation to Mathabatha. The Davhanas rule over Mpheni village and other traditional communities, such as Nnengwekhulu, Masia, Mashau and Tshimbupfe and have jurisdiction over villages nearby.
Judge Semenya set aside Mathabatha’s decision on the basis that the commission failed to conduct an inspection in loco at Tshiruruluni, where the Davhana head kraal is situated, as it did with collecting evidence on the Nnengwekhulu’s head kraal.
In March, the Polokwane High Court found that Mathabatha ignored facts in settling a traditional leadership dispute between the Makuleke and Mhinga traditional communities. The Makuleke community won its application to be recognised as an independent traditional community that deserves to have its own chief or senior traditional leader following a series of events since the apartheid era, which relegated the community’s leadership status to that of a headman.
The Makulekes accused the Limpopo Commission on Traditional Disputes and Claims of having ignored recommendations of the Ralushai Commission, which was appointed by erstwhile premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi in 1996 to recognise the Makuleke as a traditional community and recommending that their chieftainship be restored.