In a number of rural villages, civic organisations and traditional leaders do not see eye to eye and because of this, many innocent residents are often caught in the crossfire.
One such community is Thononda village outside Thohoyandou. Thononda is one of the 77 villages under the Tshivhase Royal Authority. The civic has its own funeral-levy register wherein they have been keeping book of residents' contributions for years.
However, things changed slightly for Thononda residents when the traditional leader started his own funeral book in addition to the old one, and those who do not contribute to his book are refused the right to bury their loved ones at the local cemetery.
Mr Mashudu Matamela told the media that when his sister Naledzani Matamela passed away on 13 March this year, the family was not allowed entry to the cemetery to lay her to rest. "We followed all the protocols, but we were told we would not be allowed to bury our sister [in the village cemetery] because she was married somewhere else and had not contributed to the village funeral funds, which is not true. It hurts us so much to be made scapegoats in personal fights. Our chief is not fair and surrounds himself with the wrong people who are not advising him well. It must be known that we paid the R2 000 and that we would like to see this come to an end. No other family should go through what we experienced," he said.
Mr Hendrick Mudzunga of the local civic expressed his displeasure at the way things are being run in the village. "There are so many nasty incidents happening here that are perpetrated by the chief and his cohorts, who do as they please. We have been attacked on a number of occasions and laid charges that are still to see their day in court," he said. "We are very disappointed by what had happened to the Matamela family. They were treated very unfairly. We urge the chief to not make another family go through what this family went through. They are residents here, but are made to pay money as punishment to spite those the chief feels are enemies."
Asked whether he was aware of the levies in these villages, Thovhele Vele Kutama, the chairperson of the Vhembe House of Traditional Leaders, said this happened at most of the villages. "Structures like civics and other stakeholders in villages sit with the traditional leaders and agree on how they want things done at their village. The monies raised are used for a variety of things in the village. We do not have control over the agreements in these villages," he said.
Thovhele Kennedy Tshivhase, under whom Thononda village falls, echoed the same response, saying that the matter was one between the community and their traditional leader to resolve. He confirmed that many misunderstandings occurred between the civics and traditional leaders and that he had dissolved the civics after the youth had complained about the matter.