National House of Traditional & Khoi-San Leaders

17/09/2026

📢Happening today!
⚠️ Site visit: School for Royal Children Project
📍Bakgatla Ba Kgafela TC, Moruleng; North West
🗓️17 September 2026

The Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders (NHTKL), Kgosi Thabo Seatlholo, together with the Chairperson of the Mpumalanga Provincial House, Kgoshi LM Mokoena, were at the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela Traditional Community, hosted by Kgosi MJ Pilane.

The visit marked an important step in the NHTKL’s School for Royal Children project, with Kgosi Pilane generously offering land for the proposed school.

Accompanying the leadership were built-environment technical experts, including Civil and Structural Engineers from the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA), who were there to assess the suitability of the identified site and the development possibilities it presents.

Speaking during the pre-assessment briefing, Chairperson Seatlholo outlined a vision for a school where children of traditional leaders from across South Africa can grow, learn and build solid relationships.

He said the initiative is intended to help address tribalism while promoting multilingualism, cultural understanding and appreciation of South Africa’s diverse traditional communities, preparing the next generation for their future roles within traditional leadership.

The Chairperson further emphasised that the school must look and feel African, with its architecture and design informed by indigenous cultures and South African heritage.

In the post assessment briefing, Kgosi Seatlholo stressed the importance of moving swiftly from concept to implementation. He called for early engagement with institutions including UNISA, the higher education sector, the Department of Basic Education, universities and centres specialising in African leadership and Indigenous Knowledge Systems to help shape a unique curriculum and establish an appropriate educational model.

He also highlighted the need for research into the most appropriate starting point for the school, including consideration of a Grade 8–12 boarding model, before potentially expanding to primary education. Importantly, he emphasised that the model must be informed by the needs and preferences of parents.

Kgosi Seatlholo outlined that the immediate priority is to establish the concept, assess the land, develop the architectural and technical designs, determine the costs and build the partnerships needed to take the project forward.

In his vote of thanks, Kgosi MJ Pilane expressed appreciation to all those who participated in the engagement, describing the commencement of the project as the realisation of a lifelong dream to establish an agricultural school that will prepare future generations to lead in this critical sector.

Following discussions on the processes still to be completed, including the technical assessments and ongoing planning, MISA committed to providing monthly progress updates.

Kgosi Pilane affirmed his personal commitment to seeing the project through, emphasising his commitment to galvanising the partnerships necessary for the success of the project.

Today’s engagement was more than a site assessment. It represents the beginning of a collective effort to transform a long-held vision into a sustainable institution that can educate, empower and prepare future generations.

17/09/2026

📢Recent Highlight!
⚠️ Mpumalanga Traditional Leadership Indaba
📍Mbombela; Mpumalanga
🗓️15 - 16 September 2026

The Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders (NHTKL), Kgosi Thabo Seatlholo, participated in the Mpumalanga Traditional Leadership Indaba, led by the Chairperson of the Mpumalanga Provincial House, Kgoshi Lameck Mokoena, at the Emnotweni Arena in Mbombela.

The two-day Indaba brought together national and provincial Houses of Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership, government departments and key stakeholders to strengthen collaboration, promote good governance and advance community development.

The Mpumalanga Provincial Government reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with Amakhosi to strengthen Traditional Councils, improve institutional support, promote lawful development and build stronger relations between traditional leadership and municipalities.

Among the key issues emphasised were the need to review and increase grants allocated to Traditional Councils, ensure that Amakhosi and Traditional Councils benefit meaningfully from economic activities within their jurisdictions, and strengthen the participation of traditional communities in the mining sector.

Highlighting the NHTKL’s developmental agenda, Kgosi Seatlholo stressed the importance of ensuring that economic opportunities translate into tangible benefits for rural and traditional communities. He noted that the NHTKL is engaging the Mining Indaba and the Minerals Council South Africa to promote community benefits, compliance with social and labour commitments, environmental rehabilitation and greater participation of community enterprises in mining opportunities.

Kgosi Seatlholo further outlined the NHTKL’s work to expand opportunities for traditional communities, including support for approximately 1 341 rural enterprises through its partnership with the Department of Small Business Development, agricultural support for women farmers, and efforts to create international markets for agricultural products produced by traditional communities.

He also highlighted initiatives focused on improving access to healthcare in rural communities, including partnerships to provide eye-care services for elderly people, as well as the proposed School for Royalty, which seeks to prepare future generations of royal families for leadership while promoting cultural understanding and unity.

On customary land, the Chairperson called for faster and better-coordinated approval of development projects, while emphasising the need for traditional leaders to participate actively in legislative processes and engage constructively in Constitutional Reform.

In concluding the Indaba, Kgoshi Mokoena emphasised that there remains room for improvement in the relationship between municipalities and Amakhosi, stressing that traditional leaders should be meaningfully involved in development projects implemented within their jurisdictions.

The Indaba reaffirmed the importance of stronger collaboration between municipalities and traditional leadership as a foundation for responsive governance, sustainable development and improved outcomes for communities across Mpumalanga.

13/09/2026

Happy birthday DM🎉🎂🥳

11/09/2026

https://omny.fm/shows/trudrive/satlas-on-trudrive-on-trufm

The South African traditional leader’s awards are coming. Since sikwi nyanga yama gugu ne ncubeko, wew thought let’s check in with the CEO Mrs Nanziwe Rulashe Nesi. We are still in the nomination's stages.

11/09/2026

New health partnership brings free cataract surgery to rural communities

By Newsbreak Producer Hoosen Ebrahim - A partnership aimed at bringing cataract treatment closer to vulnerable traditional communities was launched across the country. The National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, the Al-Imdaad Foundation and Medicare have joined forces to provide eye asse...

10/09/2026

It’s full steam towards the 2026 SATLA Awards 🎉 a reminder that nominations close tomorrow 11 September 2026🗓️

To hear more about the awards - do tune in🙌🏽

09/09/2026

📢Happening today!
⚠️ Seminar: African Customary Law
📍University of Fort Hare; Eastern Cape
🗓️9 September 2026

SEMINAR FOR THE CONSOLIDATION AND CODIFICATION OF CUSTOMARY LAW IN
SOUTH AFRICA

The University of Fort Hare, in partnership with the Amaxhosa Kingdoms, alongside traditional leaders from across the Eastern Cape Province, is hosting a seminar focused on the consolidation and codification of African customary law.

The seminar serves as a pragmatic and strategic platform to elevate living customary law, formalise its norms and strengthen the integration of customary principles into South Africa’s constitutional jurisprudence and legislative frameworks.

A key focus is addressing the codification dilemma, particularly the historical practice of reducing customary law to written rules in ways that strip it of its inherent flexibility and risk ossifying living community practices. The discussions also seek to address legislation that has imposed common-law concepts onto African cultural traditions, as well as the tendency of courts to invalidate customary norms rather than develop them from an authentic African worldview.

Among the leaders in attendance are His Majesty King Sandile of the AmaRharhabe; His Majesty King Sigcawu of the AmaXhosa; Nkosi Nonkonyane; and Nkosikazi Nobongo Ngonyama.

The Deputy Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, Nkosi Langa Mavuso, participated as a panellist and delivered a paper on “Bridging Living Customary Practices, Traditional Courts and the Statutory Judiciary.”

In his contribution, the Deputy Chairperson affirmed the position that traditional leaders fully support addressing the codification dilemma by prioritising living customary law over historical and static written texts.

He cautioned that once customary rules are reduced to writing, they can become frozen in time, stripping them of the flexibility that enables customary law to evolve with the needs of communities. Historical texts produced by colonial and apartheid-era administrators, he noted, are often rigid and do not necessarily reflect how communities actually practise their customs today.

By contrast, living customary law evolves in response to socio-economic changes, constitutional values and the lived realities of communities.

Nkosi Mavuso emphasised that courts should therefore give greater weight to oral testimony from community elders, family heads and parties to customary disputes when determining the content of customary law. Such testimony can assist courts in establishing the community’s contemporary understanding of what is fair and consistent with its customs and values, rather than relying predominantly on historical written texts.

The Deputy Chairperson further highlighted how apartheid-era legal systems suppressed and distorted African cultural practices by attempting to codify them through Western legal frameworks. This created situations in which living customary practices could be invalidated simply because they did not conform to externally imposed legal concepts.

Practices such as lobola and polygamy, for example, have historically been interpreted through the lens of Western concepts of marriage, rather than being understood within their own African customary context.

He argued that correcting these historical distortions requires courts to prioritise living customary law, which continues to adapt to the changing needs of communities while being grounded in the values and principles of Ubuntu.

He called for a fundamental shift away from treating indigenous norms as secondary or subordinate forms of law, towards recognising them as living, evolving systems of customary law.

“This requires courts to meaningfully engage with how communities actually practise their customs,” he emphasised, including by giving appropriate consideration to oral histories, testimony from community elders and anthropological evidence in the courtroom.

The seminar represents an important platform for traditional leaders, academia and the legal fraternity to reflect on how South Africa can strengthen the recognition, development and application of African customary law within the country’s constitutional order.

09/09/2026

Do tune in🙌🏽

09/09/2026