Who they are
Batlokwa ba Mota is the name of a community in the Qwaqwa (Witsieshoek) area of the Free State that traces its leadership to Mota. The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, in its determination on the position of the paramount chief of Batlokwa ba Mota, describes Mota as the younger brother of Sekonyela, the Batlokwa leader remembered for his rivalry with Moshoeshoe. Our general page on the Batlokwa lists the Mota branch among the Free State branches; this page follows the commission’s account of how it arose.
From Sekonyela to Mota
The commission says Sekonyela held the mountain stronghold of Jwalaboholo near Ficksburg, that Moshoeshoe attacked and defeated the Batlokwa of Sekonyela in November 1853, and that Sekonyela fled with some followers towards present-day Bloemfontein and later obtained land in the Herschel district of the Eastern Cape, where he died in 1856. The Batlokwa then dispersed: some went to Lesotho, others to Mount Fletcher and Herschel, and others stayed at Jwalaboholo.
Mota was not at Jwalaboholo when it was attacked. According to the commission, he arrived later, gathered survivors, left the place and settled around Bergville in Natal, where he founded the community known as Batlokwa ba Mota. He had three sons, Hlubi, Patso and Moropotsana, better known as Koos. At the insistence of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the Secretary for Native Affairs, Mota moved to Sefate near Harrismith; in 1861 he moved back into Natal and eventually settled near Estcourt, where he died. The commission’s text does not give a death date for him.
After his death the sons separated. Hlubi went with followers to settle at Nquthu; Patso went to Swinburne; and Koos, who was forced to leave Natal after the Natal government blamed the Batlokwa for an invasion of Natal by Basotho, went to Sefate. In 1872 Koos Mota asked the Orange Free State government for land in Qwaqwa and was allowed to settle there with his followers as subjects of the Free State.
The Mota line in Qwaqwa
- Koos Mota applied unsuccessfully in April 1924 to be recognised as chief of the Batlokwa of Witsieshoek, and was recognised on 21 May 1929. He died on 2 February 1931.
- Silas, also known as Sekhukhune, his son, succeeded him and died in September 1931.
- Wessels Mota, Silas’s son, was a minor, so his mother Eva acted as regent until he took up his position in 1942.
- In 1985 the community was subdivided into three tribes (the commission’s text gives their names as Phomolong, Thibella and Rietpan), the chief was raised to paramount chief and the hereditary headmen to chiefs. Wessels Mota was appointed paramount chief that year under section 2(1) of the Qwaqwa Administration Authorities Act 6 of 1983.
- Wessels died on 13 August 1988 and was succeeded as paramount chief, by appointment in August 1988 under the same Act, by his son Lekunutu Cavandish Mota.
Customary succession, as the commission recorded it
The commission records that succession among the Batlokwa follows male primogeniture. The heir is the first-born son of the mofumahadi, the wife whose bridewealth (bohadi) is paid by the community. If she bears no heir, a surrogate wife (hlatswadirope) may be married to bear one; if she dies childless a sister or close relative may be given as a seantlo; if a morena dies without an heir the royal family appoints someone to raise seed for him; if he dies while his successor is a minor, a younger brother of the deceased becomes regent; and where an heir dies before marrying, a mofumahadi is married on his behalf. At the hearing it was also said that a child born outside marriage cannot succeed, that a morena has no power to override the customary law of succession, that women may act as regents (Eva is the example given), and that if the great house has no son the next senior house takes over.
What the commission decided
The commission had already found, in determinations issued on 29 and 30 April 2008, that the Batlokwa ba Mota paramountcy is not a kingship. Its separate determination on the paramount chief, after a hearing on 1 December 2008 at which Lekunutu Cavandish Mota made a presentation, asked what position he actually holds. It reasoned that a son of a leader who breaks away with followers and founds his own community cannot hold a status higher than the original leadership, that a leader may only establish positions below his own, and that Batlokwa custom does not allow several leaderships of equal status to come from one leader. It found that Koos Mota was the first leader of the community that settled in Qwaqwa, that the most he could hold under Batlokwa custom was the position of morena below the morena e moholo, that is, under the Framework Act a senior traditional leader, and that his descendants could only inherit that position. It also stated that the 1985 appointment of Wessels Mota as paramount chief was irregular, a finding it said it had made before, and that the irregularity continued with the 1988 appointment of his son. Its conclusion is that the position of the paramount chief of Batlokwa ba Mota, Lekunutu Cavandish Mota, is that of senior traditional leader.
The paramount chief’s own account, as the commission records it, differs about Sekonyela: he said Sekonyela fled and left his people, and that Mota came back, found them without a leader and filled that gap. The commission treated the rest of his evidence as largely in line with its own research and did not set it out.
What we have not read
This determination was one of a set of paramountcy decisions, and the community may not agree with it. We have not read the commission’s earlier determination on the paramountcy itself, any response from the Mota house, any court case, or anything that has happened since 2008, and we have not checked who holds the position today. The relationship between Mota and Sekonyela comes from the commission’s account alone; we have not found it in another source.
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
We have not found a published text of the Batlokwa ba Mota praises or a totem recorded for this branch, so we are printing neither. If you belong to Batlokwa ba Mota and recite the direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the position of the paramount chief of Batlokwa ba Mota (the first determination in the document, pp. 2 to 25 of the document’s own numbering)
- Wikipedia: Tlokwa (for the wider Batlokwa; lists the Mota branch)
See also our Batlokwa page.
Do you belong to Batlokwa ba Mota? Tell us your praises, your totem and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.