THE custody dispute over the 10-year-old girl believed to be the next Rain Queen is expected to be heard in the Children’s Court today.
The outcome of the closed hearing at the Bolubedu Court could enable the Modjadji Royal Kingdom of Limpopo to finally start planning the long awaited ceremony to confirm the girl as the new Rain Queen – Modjadji VII.
The Balobedu people, traditionally ruled by women rainmakers, will then have one more challenge to overcome. They are waiting for news of their application to a government commission tasked with settling succession and confirming the girl as the princess who will become queen.
Spokesman for the Modjadji Traditional Council, John Malatji, said the mother of the girl, Queen Modjadji VI, died in 2005 before the child was a year old. So the council appointed her brother by another father to act as regent.
Malatji said the regent’s job is to lead the tribe until the girl turns 18.
The regent had been in charge of organising rain-making rituals since 2006, added Malatji.
The Balobedu were still shocked by the deaths of two queens when it was reported that the girl’s father had abducted her and taken her to Midrand in Gauteng. That sparked a long custody dispute.
ANC MP and lawyer Mathole Motshekga, the former adviser to Modjadji V and Modjadji VI, applied for temporary custody of the girl until the dispute is settled.
Malatji confirmed the girl’s custodians are Motshekga and his wife, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
The girl is at boarding school so she can concentrate on schoolwork.
- Malatji denied there was a link between the Modjadji dispute and the drought.
EFF MP Makoti Khawula recently suggested to Parliament’s committee on water and sanitation that they are thinking about sending a delegation to the Modjadjis to talk about what else can be done to break the drought. – NEWS24
