Ravele in the sources
Dr Frank N. Ravele (written F. N. Ravele) was the second and last State President of the Republic of Venda, from 1988 until the coup of 1990. A headman (gota) under the Mphephu territorial authority, he was elected after the death of Patrick Mphephu. The Mushasha Commission criticised his handling of the creation of new vhuhosi, including his own.
What the sources say
Presidency. Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis says Ravele, 62, a member of the Zion Christian Church, a Unisa student and former treasurer of the Mphephu Tribal Authority, was unanimously elected by the Venda National Assembly on 10 May 1988, nominated by Gota E. R. B. Nesengani (see Nesengani), after the death of Patrick Mphephu in April 1988. The Venda National Party won the general election of September 1988 unopposed and he was sworn in on 20 October 1988. Venda leaders expected that the heirs deprived of their thrones, Kennedy Tshivhase and Peter Kutama, might be reinstated under him (ch. 7, pp. 171 to 173; see Kutama).
Becoming a khosi. Ravele applied for promotion from gota to khosi in 1989, with Gota Musekwa and Gota C. N. Mphephu; the Mushasha Commission found he approved the applications, in a memo of 10 July 1989, against the written advice of the director-general, Mr Lidovho, who had told him on 3 July that the President could act only after consulting the Khoro ya Mahosi and the Territorial Council. The three were installed on 15 September 1989 at Musanda ha Mphephu. Mulaudzi concludes that Ravele knew what he was doing and wanted promotion to end the challenge of two centres of power; at the Commission, Ravele blamed Lidovho (ch. 8, pp. 187 to 195). See Musekwa and Mushasha Commission.
Overview article
See Venda kingship disputes, 1890s to 2020s for the wider history.
Cautions
Fokwang’s 2003 thesis dates Mphephu’s death to 1989; Mulaudzi’s dates (April and May 1988) are the ones given in contemporary newspapers he cites. “Ravele” is also the personal name of Ramabulana in older sources; do not confuse them. Mulaudzi is a historian writing in 2020 from commission reports, newspapers and interviews he carried out himself, and he states his own opinions in the text; the extracted text of the thesis has stray spaces and some unreadable characters, so page numbers are approximate. Venda kingship history is told differently by each house and by each historian, and where the sources differ we say so and take no side.
Sources and further reading
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 7, pp. 171 to 173
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 8, pp. 187 to 195
See also Masingo, Ramabulana and Tshivhase.
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