MURANGONI – The dispute over the headmanship at Murangoni Village was taken to the Thohoyandou High Court on Tuesday.

After the death of the late headman, Sogomodo Nemurangoni, two years ago, the Nemurangoni Royal Family was left without a leader. It is alleged that Mr Nndwakhulu James Nemurangoni, who was a Ndumi of the late Sigomodo, took over as acting headman.

On November 9, 2002, the Nemurangoni Royal Family gathered to appoint a suitable headman and they finally appointed Mr Mkhanedzeni as headman and his Ndumi was Samson and the Khadzi was Thivhonali.

Mr Nkhanedzeni is the biological son of the late Sigomodo, but the acting headman, Mr Nndwakhulu Nemurangoni, denies that Nkhanedzeni is a suitable person to lead the Murangoni community. He took the matter to the Thohoyandou High Court for help.

Ndwakhulu is also the chairperson of the Nemurangoni clan and he told the court that he had been disempowered through the intervention of Chief Ntsandeni Netshiavha, who came from Tshiavha Village to chair the meeting of the Nemurangoni royal family. He said that Chief Netshiavha must look after his portion of land at Tshiavha, and forget about intervening in the affairs of the Nemurangoni family.

Nndwakhulu also told the court that Nkhanedzeni had been appointed as new headman by Chief Netsiavha, who knew nothing about the Nemurangoni clan. "The meeting was unlawfully chaired by Netshiavha," said Nndwakhulu. He added that Chief Netshiavha wanted to remove him "from this position of being the acting headman."

Nnwakhulu said that Chief Ntsandeni Netsiavha had just come to the meeting uninvited and he led the Nemurangoni family to hand over the name of a man who they allege is suitable to be the headman of Murangoni village, to Thovhele Kennedy Tshivhase.

When Judge George Hetisani asked Nndwakhulu why he was denying that Nkhanedzeni was a suitable man to be a headman, he told the court that Nkhanedzeni's mother had killed his grandmother and that she was the second wife of the late headman Sigomodo.

The judge postponed the case for further investigation.