Pretoria land claim ‘chief’ shot dead
Controversial land claimant and self-proclaimed tribal chief Velaphi Victor Lekhuleni, who last year filed a massive land claim involving large parts of the Tshwane Metro, has been killed in Mamelodi, in the east of Pretoria.
Lekhuleni, 48, was apparently shot and killed at the gate of his 16-year-old girlfriend’s home in Section C5 of Mamelodi West on Tuesday night, Rekord East reported.
Police spokesperson Captain Jan Sepatu confirmed Lekhuleni’s death, saying further details were not immediately available.
Lekhuleni caused an uproar earlier this year when he instituted a claim starting from Cullinan in the east and ending in Zambesi Road in the west, one of the largest claims to date in the country.
He laid claim to almost half of the Tshwane metro, saying his people, the Mkwaduba of the Bakgatla ba Lekhuleni, had been removed from the Franspoort farm by police during the 1950s and early 1960s.
His claim also involved Wapadrand and most of the new east of Pretoria, up to the Innovation Hub in Lynnwood, Die Wilgers, Mamelodi, a part of the Magalies Mountain, all the way north to Derdepoort.
Lekhuleni, who was born and raised in Mamelodi, ran an initiation school, but community members and friends of his family later rubbished his claims of being a chief.
“What he is doing is against the law – walking around wearing traditional garb and skins and pretending to be a chief is misleading the people and disrespecting the Lekhuleni name,” a representative from the Lekhuleni family said last month.
The Lekhuleni queen, Zodwa Fredah Lekhuleni, echoed the representative’s sentiments, saying: “What Velaphi has done is disrespectful, and he dragged our surname on the ground. One day he will pay for all the wrong things he has done to the family.”
The Land Claims Commission was in the process of investigating Lekhuleni’s background, including the legality of his claim at the time of his death.
– Caxton News Service
Read original story on rekordeast.co.za
