06/04/2024
Re-post. Credit to Tlou Wa Ga Raophala for writing us this piece . i cannot confirm the credibility of the source i however find this informative.
Lets read together!!!!!!!.
" THE ORIGIN OF BOTLOKWA!
“ In the beginning a Tlokwa man took a wife, it is not known where the woman
came from. The two gave birth to many children, who in turn also had many children.
Thus the Tlokwa multiplied. First they became a family, then a clan, then they became a village and the village increased to form a nation to be called Batlokwa. That is the story
of the coming of the Batlokwa people”. Our source
Our aim is to share with you the little facts about a dusty Botlokwa. Because of lack of contemporary documentary evindence on the subject it has been necessary to approach
descendants of the earliest settlers (who are few to say).We hope to convey a sense of what it was like here in those days. There are so many conflicting accounts and it is impossible to tell what really happened. We will tell what seems to be the most coherent story.
We are told, before Tlokwa community came into being this area was occupied by the
Vendas “ba Senthumule” hence the name of some villages which makes up Botlokwa.
The assumption is that village names such as Matseke, Mphakane,Ramatjoe etc. are venda words whose meanings are not known.The Batlokwas are originally from Basotholand under kgosi Manthatisi then. Having had numerous relocations enroute to the north their last temporary settlement was somewhere in Moletsi. From Moletsi then they came down to here across hundreds of miles of bare and inhospitable veld. When they arrive at “nokeng ya Letsatsana” they could see clustered huts and tents from a distance around “Thabeng ya Mphakane” which implied that there were people (the Vendas) living there . They had to hide and wait until late in the night so that they can launch an attack. A number of vendas were killed while some fled and those who survived the attack were absorbed by the Tlokwas. Today the place is popularly known as Botlokwa ga Machaka in honour of first Kgosi Machaka who played an important part in the establishement of Botlokwa location.
Our other source say chief Machaka had two sons who were always at logger heads at each other. One day a tiger was reported to be troubling the people at a small mountain next to “Ka Dipateng”. The mountain was later to be known as “Tlapeng la Nkwe”. The creature was killed and its skin caused a big problem to kgosi Machakas two sons. They fought for the skin and “kgosi” had to separate them by relocating one to the north east
were we today call Mokomene ga Ramokgopa while the other one remained at Mphakane. The one posted at Mokomene later changed his name to Ramokgopa the name inspired by the tiger skin they fought for. Because of fear of possible attack by outside enemies kgosi Machaka had to apply security measures. He posted his other half brothers to some strategic points each with his people and that’s how villages like Makgato , Matseke , Sekonye , Sekakene, and Ramatjoe came into being. Machaka remained with subvillages like Dipatene,Ga polatla,Dikgading within Mphakane precinct. The efforts was to place Mphakane as the royal palace in the center for Machakas protection.
The Vendas who were by then converted to Tlokwa were good in place naming.
Everywere it pays to be based at the head office and that is why we hear old men of today when they are intimidated by their bullies calls themselves boys of Mphakane –“mosimana wa Mphakane” – they always associate themselves with the ruling place.
The other source is telling us the two Machakas sons (who fought for the animal skin) rift is still prevalent. Today Ramokgopa is ruling his tribe on his own and is having Eisleben and Phasha villages as his tribes. Proof of this rift is there for everyone to see. Often we hear people of Mokomene saying they are going to Botlokwa when coming to Mphakane as if they were not Tlokwas.You suddenly start to sense that something fishy is happening.
Who said force removals only happens in urban black townships like Alexandra and Diepsloot .Also rural black settlements were targets.We are told in the 70s an attempt was made by the then apartheid government to move Batlokwa to a place called Vivo. They were planning to mine coal here seeing that the area is rich in coal underground. These attempt was thwarted by Kgosi Letheba Machaka but not through fights. He engaged them in talks and won. But the Makgato people were more than happy to move as they were promised luxury houses.Some sorts of kickbacks/Insentives were promised to tribal chiefs to convince them . The Makgato people are today settling some 300 kilometres next to Thabammopo and surprisingly the beautiful houses promised are not there.
Kgosi Lethebas effort to stop the relocation must be appreciated by all because places like ViVo and Kroomhoek offers no luxury as such. One can wonder how people there survive.
By Tlou Wa Ga Raophala
"
