“Public protector must investigate…”- Maelula residents

Residents of Ha-Maelula, through their local civic association, want the office of the Public Protector to investigate their traditional leader, Musanda Vho Vhambelani Edward Maelula Ramabulana, and his local council on something they termed "unjustifiable exercise of power".

Earlier, in August this year, residents held a meeting to voice their grievances about matters such as nepotism, bad faith and corruption allegedly engineered by their traditional leader and his local council.

According to the Maelula branch chairperson, Mr TN Matumba, Musanda Vho Maelula and his local council have been forcing all residents to contribute R4.00 monthly towards the coffers of the local crèche. Matumba said that all members in a household, whether employed or not, are compelled to pay.

"We want the Department of Education to intervene in the form of launching a thorough investigation. One of our major concerns is that we are paying the money, but no receipts are issued to us," he alleged.

Matumba added that there is also an ´unlawful graveyard gate-opening fee´ of R300. He alleges that if the bereaved family does not pay the money, the graveyard gate will never be opened for them to burry their deceased.

"We have also learnt that the money accumulated in that manner does not go into a bank account where proper records can be kept. We feel embarrassed when our graveyard remains untidy whereas residents are charged a huge amount of money to bury their deceased," he said.

Since 2005, the traditional leader has been embroiled in a controversy of fighting over a piece of land with a certain group of his residents. The matter also ended up in the Thohoyandou High Court.

According to Matumba and his assistant, Mrs KR Rerani, the traditional leader is mercilessly repossessing their orchards because they were granted the portion of land by the former Venda homeland government under the late Musanda Vho-TT Ramabulana.

The other reason of repossession of land, according to the members of the Maelula Sanco branch, is that the pieces of land at the centre of controversy are all without "Title Deeds", so the ownership cannot be confirmed.

In a documents in the possession of Mirror, the local Sanco branch alleges that Musanda Vho-Vhambelani Maelula indicated that any portion of land not granted by him was unlawfully owned. In the same document it is indicated that residents need proper financial records of the bluegum trees sold to date from Sinthumule Tribal Authority. The Sanco leadership is also alleging that there is improper allocation of RDP houses at the village. "In our area, if you are a relative to Vha-musanda or a close friend, you stand a better chance to own an RDP house with ease. To us, this is contrary to the law and the wish of our democratic government of the day," reads part of the statement.

On behalf of the Maelula Territorial Concil, Mr Nndweleni Dagada said: "All these are baseless allegations; delegates from the office of the Public Protector came to the village and found nothing wrong," he said.

News - Date: 09 November 2007

Nthambeleni Gabara

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