Balobedu queenship challenged by disgruntled cousin
Hardly a day after the Modjadji Royal Family celebrated their queenship status in Tzaneen, a close royal family relative threw a bombshell when he claimed the queenship of the Balobedu clan.
LIMPOPO – Reuphus Mokoto, a cousin of the Modjadji royal family, said the Modjadjis were not the rightful heirs to the throne.
Mokoto whose claim to the throne has already been heard by both the Nthlapo and Tolo Commission, told CV at the celebration that the Modjadji royal family, world renowned for their supernatural rainmaking powers, stole the dynasty from the Mokotos soon after the death of their father in the early 1960s.
Mokoto said his father, Phetole Wailess Mokoto, was the paramount chief of the Balobedu clan from 1955 to 1960.
He said his father died during a car accident on the road between Johannesburg and Tzaneen in 1960. Soon after his father’s death, he added, the Modjadjis crowned a female ruler, Makoma Modjadji IV, as a regent as he was still too young to lead the clan.
“Contention started when the family brushed us aside to crown one of their own, Mokope in 1981. Matters came to a head after the death of Mokope in 2001 when the Modjadjis avoided us like a disease and crowned Makobo as Modjadji VI,” Mokoto said.
“They will not crown that girl as the queen of the Balobedu clan, she is not the rightful heir to the throne because her mother was just a regent,” Mokoto said, adding the the family has now avoided going the legal route and called a meeting between the Mokoto and the Modjadji royal family to iron out the matter.
CV has seen a letter addressed to the Modjadji royal family demanding an urgent meeting poised to jolt the dynasty of Balobedu between senior members of the families.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on 28 April at the royal household in Khethakone village near Modjadjiskloof.
Speaking on behalf of the Modjadji royal family and council at the Mokwakwaila Stadium on Saturday, the Modjadji family told the more than 7 000 jubilant attendees the family would crown the 13-year-old Masalanabo Modjadji as the new queen of the Balobedu clan.
The family said the girl would be 18 years or older at the time of the coronation. The new queen elect, Masalanabo is the first daughter of the late queen Modjadji VI who died of meningitis in 2005 following a protracted illness.
After her death, her brother, prince Mpapatla Modjadji, was crowned the regent of the Balobedu clan.
Spokesperson for the Modjadji royal family and council, Phetole Mampeule, said the new queen would undergo proper ritual practices in order to fit her status as a leader of the more than 128 villages of Bolobedu before crowning takes place.
Sunday Mampeule, who is also Spokesperson for the Modjadji royal family, snuffed out the Mokotos’ claims for dynasty.
“If the claims by the Mokos were genuine, why don’t they convince the relevant bodies which deal with claims and counter-claims on traditional leadership and status?” Mampeule asked.
He said according to his knowledge, the first rain queen of Balobedu was Maselekwane, followed by Masalanabo, Khesethwane, Makoma, Mokope and then Makobo. He said Makobo, who is the mother to the queen elect, died in June 2005.
He said all the queens ruled from 1894 after landing in South Africa from Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, until 2005 when Makobo met her death.
“I think the Mokotos have gotten the wrong end of the stick. Their claims are neither here nor there. Their facts lack substance and their argument cannot carry water. We are not going to give a chancer a chance because that could be lethal.
“You know what they say, if you can’t beat them, you must join them. I invite the Mokotos to join us in jubilation celebrating the exuberant achievement of the Balobedu.”
