Chief Mafunzwaini Ramagoma, Vha Musanda, was not my friend nor was he a friend of my brother. He has always been a father with this royal mystique.

He was from Tshikota, where I was born, before the dreaded forceful removal that moved us to this place we now call home.

Chief Ramagoma in his own way resisted the move. Like in Palestine, his household and its belonging were carried to the new area, and we now commit him to his final place. With his passing on, a chapter of our history is closed.

In a way, Chief Ramagoma continued to protest. He protested against holding the Office of the Chief -VhaMusanda. This royal business was too much for him. He finally accepted under immense pressure after 1994. He, in part, carried the burden like all who were conscious of the condition of being black dealt with on a daily basis. He too, though royalty, was employed and worked for the descendant of the earlier Europeans who came to know South Africa as home.  He too, knew what it meant to wake up at 04:00 and warm up a bakkie in preparation of going to work. He knew what it meant to be home after 19:00.

He understood the social and emotional deprivation of children. In the midst of deprivation, the need to build a family and have cultured children, he too lived with the pain of an unfulfilled parent. It is this mix that created the consciousness that became the basis for our generation's protest and rejection of being part of the then Venda homeland.

Though he was the provider of his family, he too wanted to have that intimacy with his children. Reality deprived him of this. However, he had the opportunity to have a word or two with his children during weekends.

In the early years of Vleifontein, a lot of people lost their livelihood. Forceful removal meant displacement. Most who had spaza-shops and could walk to and from their workplaces were placed in a situation where they had to go away to earn money. At that time, to many money was a rare commodity.

Most people lost their jobs. Other remained in constant conflict with their employers arising from transport challenges. It became expensive to be in Vleifontein. This gave rise to a generation of indebted families. Most became unemployed; all of a sudden the R500 that was sufficient for a family no longer met the demand.

This had to be shared with the bus company, and the bus price escalation has always been a bone of contention in Vleifontein. We mobilised the community around this transport challenge - it was the most immediate challenge.

In addition to this, he participated in what today are self-help block contributions aimed to assist when there is a funeral. The contributions bound the community together. Chief Ramagoma witnessed all this and he participated in the contribution during the early years.

We watched and experienced his generation's critical engagement with reality. In what seemed to be timidity of his generation, we were encouraged to go to school. He, like all other parents, participated in our education; they used to be the dreaded school committees that we saw as complicit with power.  

Vha Musanda leaves us with a challenge to document our history as we experienced it. We are left with the need to set a new community agenda that will move from oral tradition to documenting our histories. True to his protest, his last resting place is Vleifontein, a place he called home.

- Sello wa ha Madima, Director: Executive Support, Office of the Director General