Press Release by His Royal Highness Prince Mpapatla Modjadji
Date 17 May 2021
Our nation has always been of great interest to both the local and global
community, because of our rich history, heritage, and unique cultural practices.
Allow me to clarify from the onset, that there are certain cultural concepts that
have been mistranslated in the English language, leading to a misinterpretation
of our culture and tradition.
I will start with the terms Queen or Rain Queen. In Khelobedu, our throne is not
attached to any gender. We have had 200 years of male rulers and over 200
years of female rulers. In the more than 400 years which the Balobedu nation
has been in existence, all our rulers have been referred to as Khosi, whether
male or female. The terms King and Queen are thus foreign terminology to us.
However, to avoid confusion as we live in a society where English is a
dominant language, going forward I will use the terms King, referring to a male
Khosi, and Queen referring to a female Khosi.
Rain Queen is therefore also a foreign concept, because our traditional
rainmaking ceremonies have always been part of our culture, regardless of
whether the ruler at the time was a man or a woman. Yes, rainmaking is a
process that is led by Khosi, but it also involves the broader community, who
take part in our yearly rainmaking ceremony. It would be wrong to attribute this
sacred process to a single individual, when it is in fact a collaborative effort.
Furthermore, when the Royal Council in 1800 decided that the time has arrived
for Queens to ascend the throne and to protect their lineage, our customs had to
be modified such that Queens should not marry. Therefore, all children born to
the Queen, myself included, shall have no claim to paternity.
The Queen is to beassisted by maidens, known in our language as Vhatanoni, to help raise the Queen’s children and in the daily running of the royal household. It is thus a
taboo in our culture, to ask about or even claim paternity of the Queen’s
children. Such information is highly classified, and only known by designated
members within the Royal Family.
According to our customs, a child born to the Queen does not exit the Royal
household until the age of six. The preparation process for all potential heirs
starts in these first and very crucial six years, where sacred rituals are
performed.
On the issue of recognition and Queenship status: at the time of recognition, the
last person to be crowned was a Queen, the term was and is still fit. This does
not alter our customs in anyway, because as I said in the beginning, our throne
is not attached to any gender, there are no contradictions here. Any person
deemed eligible by the Royal Family and the Royal Council, regardless of
gender, may ascend the throne.
Ten days ago, I had the honour to announce an important decision made by the Modjadji Royal Family. It was indeed its most important decision since my
sister Queen Makobo Modjadji VI passed away sixteen years ago in 2005.
Since then the throne has been left vacant pending another decision by the
Modjadji Royal Family, while I serve as Regent. As the eldest in the Royal
Family, it is my duty to make sure that the Kingdom is well run, with honour
and integrity. I have found that this is the right time for me to step aside as
Regent.'
Given the rich history of our nation and traditional practices in choosing the
rightful heir to the throne, the Modjadji Royal Family and Royal Council took
the decision to appoint my nephew HRH Prince Lekukela Modjadji, as the
rightful heir to inherit the throne from his mother. He is 24 years of age and the
first-born child of Queen Makobo Modjadji VI, and the elder brother to 16-year-old HRH Princess Masalanabo Modjadji.
It was also decided that HRH Princess Masalanabo Modjadji, will be given a
senior position as the Great Aunt in the Modjadji Kingdom, when she comes of
age and undergoes sacred cultural processes, in order to strengthen our dynasty.
HRH Prince Lekukela Modjadji will be inaugurated as King Lekukela Modjadji
VII on the 1st October 2022. It was decided that I shall in the meantime
continue acting as Regent on his behalf until he is inaugurated. We have already
communicated with our traditional leaders as we prepare for the inauguration,
in order for every Molobedu to participate in this historic event.
Khelobedu khere baana ba Khosi re loba ka moka ka o re yo a dho dulao
khetulo a re motsebe.
Kha boya khare Zwe diyeya ka zwoosi (Meaning things happen naturally).
It is indeed sad that the respected and famous Modjadji Dynasty has arrived
where it is today, at a time when the world is ruled by social media, and the
media in general. Where people end up not knowing what to believe. But we
would like to emphasise that the Modjadji Royal Family, the Royal Council, our
respected traditional leaders and senior Traditional leaders, are united, strong
and firm with our decisions.
In 2005 after Queen Makobo Modjadji had died, that’s when problems in the
Monarch arose, when David Mohale who we thought was just a friend to Queen
Makobo, instead claimed the paternity of Princess Masalanabo, daughter to
Queen Makobo. Like I said before, this is a taboo according to our customs and
culture. That’s when we realised that there is a problematic individual amongst
us who had disguised himself as one of us.
In the process of preparing to bury Queen Makobo, that’s when Julia Mabale
nee Mokoto snatched 6 months old baby Masalanabo from the Royal House in
collaboration with the late David Mohale.
We were later informed by officials from the Department of COGTA Limpopo,
that the late David Mohale has approached the Department to claim that he was
the husband of Queen Makobo and father to Princess Masalanabo. David
Mohale stated that he wants to be a Regent on Prncess Masalanabo’s behalf,
because in his uninformed opinion, as the first-born daughter, Princess
Masalanabo should be heir to the throne. He was referred to the Royal Family
and the Royal Council, to take a resolution on this matter. He simply failed.
At the same time there was a group of men who were appointed under false
pretexts, calling themselves Makotha. To our surprise after the death of Queen
Makobo those Makotha pushed for a motion that the late David Mohale must be
a Regent. Their appointment was questioned and consequently dismissed by the
Council, as they were not working in line with our tradition. One of those
Makotha’s had hosted Queen Makobo at a party in his house, after which we
learned of Queen Makobo’s passing the following day.
That’s when the Council realised that we are under serious attack, similar to the
1800 and the 1895 attack.
These Makotha were doing things foreign to our culture, like wanting to remove
some of our headmen and replace the headmen with themselves. Makotha
would at times fraudulently collect money from our people without the
knowledge of the Royal Council.
When the Royal Council appointed me as Regent, at that time the government
wanted a preferred name of the person on whose behalf I will be acting. The
government requested only one name, which goes against our culture. We
nonetheless submitted the name of Princess Masalanabo, for at that time, the
eyes of the royal family saw her as one of the preferred candidates to take the
throne. This is how we came to listing Princess Masalanabo as the preferred
candidate.
We appeared at the Nhlapo commission against people claiming our Kingdom
as theirs. Amongst those people was Julia Mabale nee Mokoto. This was in
2006, eight months after the family was unsuccessful in their many attempts to
get Princess Masalanabo back to her rightful home.
As a result, the Royal Council and Royal Family took a resolution in 2006 that
Prince Lekukela, as a potential heir is next in line to the throne. Khelobedu
khere baana ba Khosi re loba ka moka ka o re yo a dho dulao khetulo a re
motsebe. Also fearing for his safety and unnecessary attention on him as per
custom, we agreed that it must be kept a secret until he officially takes over.
Hiding the next heir to the throne has always been our culture, not instances
were you find an old man holding a little girl by hand introducing her as Queen,
that’s not our culture that’s the culture of commoners who introduce and impose
their foreign cultures in the royal House. We have order in the royal house,
Khelobedu khere lapa la mosata le a thedimosa.
Realising that some of our Royal Council members were getting old, in 2008
we signed a resolution and took it to the 2008 Premier of Limpopo and His
MEC in the Department of COGTA for record keeping, that Prince Lekukela
will be next in line to the throne, after we discovered that the group plotting
against the dynasty is larger than we thought.
We kept on working towards restoring the status of our monarchy, and it was
restored in 2016, eight years after the resolution that Prince Lekukela is the next
in line to the throne
On the recognition of our monarchy status in 2016, Dr Mathole Motshekga
approached me and said that he will help us bring Masalanabo back to the
Royal House, it was the greatest news we always wanted to hear. We went to
meet Dr Motshekga at Randburg Magistrate court, expecting that he will let
Masalanabo go home with us but instead he applied for a foster care in his
favour which was granted on condition that he should reintegrate Masalanabo
with her family during school holidays, but he never brought Masalanabo home
to spend holidays with her brother Lekukela, violating the same court order
ruling in his favour.
Instead, Dr Motshekga took Masalanabo to Julia Mabale nee Mokoto, he even
wrote in one of his letters that Julia Mabale nee Mokoto is the right person to
teach Masalanabo royal issues. Julia Mabale nee Mokoto and her brothers are
the aforementioned group that once went to the Nhlapho commission claiming
that the Modjadji dynasty belongs to them in 2006. Their case was dismissed by
the Tolo commission.
In 2016, we wrote to the Randburg Children’s Court stating that we have taken
many steps to facilitate Masalanabo’s return home for over 11 years, but to no
avail. This was when a social worker appointed by the same court, Ms. Irma
Schutte, visited us and assured us that it was safe for Princess Masalanabo to
return home, Ms Schutte added that this should be done sooner rather than later.
Around the year 2018 Dr. Motshekga told us that we owe him one million rand
for taking care of Masalanabo. We requested him to submit invoices, but to this
day he has never done so.
In 2019 we saw him misleading the ANC at a rally in Kimberly by announcing
Masalanabo as Queen Modjadji VII. Dr Motshekga had no right to announce
anything about the Royal Family in public. This was disrespectful to the
Modjadji monarchy. Unfortunately, Masalanabo has missed several divine and
sacred processes in our culture and tradition as a potential heir.
We also were made aware about the existence of a letter addressed to The
President, peddling misinformation about matters pertaining to the affairs of the
Royal Family.
It became clear to us that our dynasty will be used for wrong reasons. And all of
a sudden, there was Queen Modjadji Offices in Pretoria, without the consent
and knowledge of the Royal Family and Royal council. But it is our duty to act
in the interest of our dynasty and Balobedu. The Royal Council is aware of thedocuments going around inviting people to join a council under Masalanabo,
which is another Makotha style.
In March 2021 we tried tirelessly, through our legal team, to revoke the foster
care order on Masalanabo from Dr Motshekga and his wife Angie Motshekga,
the Minister of Basic Education. Unfortunately, despite the professional
assessment of Ms. Schutte and our objection as family, the couple went ahead to
renew their foster care court order for Princess Masalanabo’s custody. This was
seen as disrespect and an insult to the Royal Family and the Royal Council.
It is our intention to save both the throne and Princess Masalanabo, so that what
happened to Queen Makobo shouldn’t happen to Princess Masalanabo. We
know how our adversaries operate. They win the trust of the incumbent, so they
can be appointed within the Royal Family and Royal Council structures.
Once they are convinced that they are rooted in our institution, they assassinate the incumbent and exercise their powers to legitimize themselves as rulers, to causequarrels and mayhem in the nation. All this is motivated by greed and desire for money. In one of the letters, Dr. Mathole stated that he raised funds from one of the country’s most established businessmen, using the name of Princess
Masalanabo as Rain Queen.
We understand that we are living in times were corruption, cons and fraudsters,
are deep rooted around the world. The Modjadji Royal Family and the Royal
Council deny knowing Mrs Tebogo Modjadji-Kekana and we distance
ourselves from unfounded allegations made by her. We can confirm that she is
not a member of the Royal Family nor is she a representative of the Royal
Family.
Our kingdom has always been under attack by our adversaries, and by their
capturing of Princess Masalanabo, they thought they shall have got the kingdom
on a silver platter. Standing where we are, we are still optimistic, that whatever
power that be, will make the necessary interventions and help us in returning
Princess Masalanabo back home. I trust that from today, people will leave royal
issues to the Royal House and commoners will know that they don’t have a
place in the affairs of the Modjadji throne.
We are the only monarchy in Africa that has given women a chance to rule for
more than 200 years as Queens by birth, and not by marital status, a sign of
being non-sexist and champions of gender equality and transformation. In fact,
Balobedu are two hundred years ahead of modern systems and programmes,
when it comes to issues of gender sensitivity, women leadership, and empowerment. Balobedu know and respect the order of things in our culture,
and the relevant traditional structures. Most of the negativity and confusion in
the media, is caused by people who do not live in Bolobedu, and have no
knowledge and respect for our institution and its leaders.
As the Great Uncle, together with the Royal Council, we will be the first the
line of defense, from attacks to the Modjadji Dynasty. The future King HRH
Prince Lekukela Modjadji VII will be last line of defense.
Now, after 216 years, a male heir will ascend the throne. We still stand by our
natural decision. Long Live King Lekukela Modjadji VII.
PUUUUULAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! PUULAAAA!!!!!!!!
And I thank you.
Mpapatla Modjadji
Thy Regent
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