Kennedy Tshivhase in the sources
Kennedy (Midiyavhathu) Tshivhase is the present head of the Tshivhase house. The Commission names him as the present thovhele of the Tshivhase traditional community and the son of the ruler who reigned from 1963 to 1966. He is a living public figure, and this page records only what the sources say about the office and its public history.
What the sources say
Fokwang and Luonde agree on the outline. He was installed as heir in 1970, when his father had died four years earlier, and an uncle, John Shavhani Tshivhase, acted as regent until he was thought ready to take office. Luonde says he was installed by King Patrick Mphephu Ramabulana. In the early 1990s the Tshivhase Royal Council was divided between those who supported his right to the throne and those who opposed it; Fokwang says the opposition rested on a claim about his mother’s status as the proper mother of an heir. He won the legal suit against his uncle and assumed office in 1993, and Fokwang reports that Gabriel Ramushwana and Walter Sisulu were present at the installation at Mukumbani, that Sisulu addressed the people, and that he called for peace and unity among the Tshivhase.
Before the Commission, the Tshivhase house claimed a kingship, which the Commission rejected (pp. 645 to 648); see our Tshivhase page. Fokwang also reports that he launched a legal suit to reclaim Tshivhase villages incorporated into the Mphephu territory under Patrick Mphephu, and that relations with the Mphephu house were friendly at times and strained at others. Wikipedia’s list gives his tenure as 1970 to the present.
Overview article
See Venda kingship disputes, 1890s to 2020s for the wider history.
Cautions
This page rests on one 2003 academic chapter, a community site and the Commission’s determination. We have deliberately not repeated claims about his private life or politics that appear in those sources. If the details of his office have changed since 2003 we have not seen it. The Tshivhase house’s history is told differently by the Commission’s record, local oral history and academic work, and the dates and names do not always agree; where they differ we say so and take no side.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Kennedy Tshivhase praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Tshivhase house and recite its praises, 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 Vhavenda kingship claim (the Tshivhase house’s account, pp. 622 to 627, and findings, pp. 645 to 648)
- J. T. D. Fokwang, thesis (2003), University of Pretoria electronic theses, chapter 2, “Historical background to the Tshivhase chiefdom, Venda” (read by us in this chapter only)
- Luonde: Ha-Tshivhasa (community site; no author, date or sources given, so treat as unverified oral history)
- Wikipedia: Venda Kingdom (lists of Tshivhase rulers; it cites Loubser 2024, Beach 1980 and others)
See also Tshivhase, Masingo and Ramabulana.
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