Ceremony to cleanse chief Matsila

LIMPOPO – AFTER a year of mourning the great brain behind the multi-million rand Matsila Development Trust, the Matsila royal family performed a cleansing ceremony at Mashamba village near Elim on Saturday.

According to chief Nkhiphitheni Matsila, the cleansing marked the end of their mourning period of the late Florah Mashamba whose contribution to the trust created a lot of jobs. She passed on last year on July 10 at the age of 90.

“Due to her wisdom, the trust employed more than 300 people in poultry farming, vegetable, cattle breeding, environmental management and arts and culture. Chronic poverty and hunger due to a lack of jobs are now things of the past.

“Job-creation projects in the area are blowing new life into the community. Our projects are giving new life to this area where many people have been struggling to make a living in the past.

“We will soon start a fish farm since there is a river in the settlement.

“The construction of the required fishing facilities should start soon.

“Now we can arrange any gig or celebration because the dark cloud is over. It gives us much more strength to go on with community development in her honour. She was a very special library of wisdom to me as a young chief. She taught me a lot on how to be a cognitive leader. She was a unifier of the community at large, as well as to the royal family.

“She advised me to be honest and transparent to the people as a leader,” Matsila recalled.

Senior traditional leader, Thovhele Nthumeni Masia expressed his appreciation to the royal family and the entire community of Matsila for honouring their pioneer in development.

Development trust brings hope to community