Official booklet will end squabbles over succession – Dept of Traditional Affairs
The official booklet, which was handed over to Vhavenda king, Toni Mphephu Ramabulana by officials of the department, will serve to avoid disputes on succession, as there have been in the past.
Silas Nduvheni
LIMPOPO – The time of oral history being the sole way of keeping record of succession in Vhavenda traditional leadership, especially chiefs and headmen, will soon be a thing of the past thanks to an official booklet compiled by the Department of Traditional Affairs.
The official booklet, which was handed over to Vhavenda king, Toni Mphephu Ramabulana by officials of the department, will serve to avoid disputes on succession, as there have been in the past.
The handover was made during a function at the 2Ten Sibasa Hotel near Thohoyandou last Thursday and was attended, among others, by Vhavenda senior traditional leaders and Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs officials.
National Department of Traditional Affairs director-general, Prof Charles Nwaila, said the department understood there were many disputes and claims from traditional leaders countrywide because of succession only being tracked by means of oral history.
“It was vital for the department to compile the written document. With this official booklet we are handing over, the Vhavenda people were part of writing their own customary law and genealogy,” he said.
According to Nwaila, the official booklet on the Vhavenda Customary Law of Succession will also be distributed in national, provincial and local libraries, Constitutional Court and in the archives of the US government.
It will also be accessible on the internet.
Ramabulana was thankful for the official booklet and said he hopes it will help in ending traditional squabbles on succession.
