Mohodi

The area of Mohodi ga Manthatha or Mohodi in short was a settlement in the former homeland of Lebowa about 75 km north-west of Pietersburg (now Polokwane). The place is named after Chief Stanford Manthatha who settled in Mohodi after leaving Mphakane in the Sekgosese district. When the Apartheid government implemented the Bantu Authorities Act, it placed Chief Manthatha under a single tribal authority with Chief Machaka as chairman and Chief Manthata as the assistant. This resulted in conflict between the followers of the two groups ensued resulting in the migration of Chief Manthatha. The Lebowa administration apparently tried to reconcile the two but failed. Their move from the reserve sat well with the government’s plans to consolidate the Lebowa homeland.

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Most people arrived in Mohodi in 1977 and continued to arrive in the area from Mphakane up to the 1980s. Mphakane was a village about 50km north of Pietersburg in the Botlokwa area, in the Sekgosese district. Several of them came from Trust Land in Mphakane while other came from neighbouring white owned farms and others from freehold land.  After a township in Dendron Municipal area was de-proclaimed, a number of people were removed from the area and relocated to Mohodi. After their arrival, most of the people lived in tents and land allocation was clearly a major source of discontent.