When I firstly heard about Mudzi wa vhurereli ha Vhavenda organization that intends to revive the culture, morals and values of the Venda people, I was grateful.

But my hapiness now is a shortlived one. It is really disappointing that this organization still views women as a subject of marriage. Their arrangement with traditional chiefs to offer Hlaudi Motsoaneng, chief operational officer in the SABC, a woman as a gift for his hard work is condemnable.

In proper protocol of the Vhavenda people when someone wants to marry he must go to Dombani where women ready for marriage are paraded to choose from. So the new trend of arranging a marriage everywhere in the name of culture and tradition is ill decisive.

The girl offered to Hlaudi, who might be a married husband, now view herself together with other nine women who were not chosen as subjects of marriage. Personally I think their intelligence and dignity were tampered with. Being given to someone as a gift is morally wrong.

There is a possibility for the girl to be ill treated because she was given to Hlaudi as a gift. A gift its something that can be destroyed if it is no longer relevant to the reasons offered for.

So my message to Humbelani Nemakonde, the secretary of the organization, is please just go to the drawing board and see if you are doing the correct things. I anticipate that people might reject your organization soon if you were to continue on this path.

You were quoted in the Independent Online, dated 13 June 2014 saying "all the girls were there with their parents. Their parents knew what was going to happen and they all agreed," but that doesn't justify your organization's attitude towards women. If this organization is launched to settle political scores or any hidden agenda, it must be tamed at all cost.

-  Phaswana Rofhiwa Mabizana