The interface between tradition and modern in postapartheid South Africa: an outline of the Kekana family succession dispute and their encounter with the Platinum Reef Resource mine.
Abstract
The terms traditional and modern and the processes thereof are often
discussed in isolation; as if they do not intersect. Some scholars have argued
that chieftaincy, as a traditional form of governance in South Africa cannot
coexist with modern democratic governance. Additional discussions have
separated agrarian activities from modern economy. This article seeks to show
the complexities of the terms modern and traditional, the institutions they
characterise as well as the processes that are involved, essentially to demonstrate
the fluidity of these terms. The familial chieftaincy dispute that erupted in 2001
between two Kekana candidates with personalities, backgrounds and histories
that are inextricably bound up in controversies that are not of their making,
is central to this paper. The Mokopane local government and the Limpopo
provincial government officials arbitrated the dispute and then awarded one
of the contenders with slightly more modern aspirations and whose father was
an ally of the apartheid and democratic administrations, the position of chief.
Also significant to this paper is the encounter between the chief and Platinum
Reef Resource (Plat- Reef ) mine. The chief in this article is key to the local
economy of Mokopane. He, along with the local and provincial government
are responsible for approving any economic activities that Plat- Reef seek to
embark on. This creates a complex intersection of a traditional and a modern
institution, systems and processes that are conventionally understood to be
dissociated.