If I could locate Ga-Mashashane within SA’s New History CAPS and education!
As South Africa commemorates 50 years of the 16 June 1976 Soweto Uprising this year, my alma mater, located in Ga-Madiba Village, also marks its golden jubilee milestone.
Malesela Maubane
It is well-known that the call for comments by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) on the draft New History Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) for Grades 4 to 12 was met with mixed feelings across various sectors of South African society.
African history, heritage, and local history are some of the fields underpinning the new history CAPS draft. Excellence Awards held by the Limpopo Department of Education’s Maune Circuit in Ga-Mashashane during Freedom Month prompted me to reflect on the above-mentioned elements forming the basis for the envisioned history curriculum overhaul.
The awards intended to celebrate academic, extra, and co-curricular achievements within the circuit’s primary and secondary schools for the 2025 academic year.
Besides alignment with the right to education in line with Section 29 of the Republic of South Africa’s Constitution, the Maune Circuit 2026 Excellence Awards and the above-mentioned CAPS fields are also aligned with provisions of Sections 30: language and culture, and 31: cultural, religious and linguistic communities, respectively.
The name of the circuit, Maune, was also given to a village in Ga-Mashashane along the Ngopane and Ramahute hills - of importance for the Mashashane tribe - as it was apparently a name given to significant MaNdebele of Ledwaba/Maune settlements, headquarters or ruins of their settlements, hence “Maune a ntlo tša go swa.”
Ga-Mashashane is located between Polokwane and Mokopane towns. On the origin of the tribal area’s name, the departed Dr Moses Josiah Madiba (Honoris Causa), educationist, linguist, and author, wrote in the Sesotho Sa Leboa book, Mahlontebe III, Lesson 25: “Polokwane evolved from Masešane, which seemingly originated from the Sepedi adage “Sešane sa basadi”.
The Mashashane area was proclaimed around 1904 and is currently under the traditional custodianship of Nkrosi Magadangele II Mashashane, son of Nkrosi Joel Sibasa II and Mokgaetji II Tlakale Mashashane.
Languages mainly spoken in the area are siNdebele sase Nyakatho (also called Northern Ndebele; falls under the Tekela group of Nguni languages, which includes siSwati, sePhuti, isiBhaca, and isiHlubi), Northern Sotho, and Xitsonga.
Dr Moroamaraba Shashi Johannes Ledwaba located Ga-Mashashane within the history of Christianity in South Africa, by implication, educational development, through the thesis for his University of Pretoria doctoral degree (2005) titled “Development of Indigenous Leadership in the church of the Province of Southern Africa, with special reference to the Diocese of St. Mark the Evangelist.”
The late Dr Ledwaba wrote that several men from Ga-Mashashane, including Nkrosi Sikxhobejana Maraba, Nkrosi Mabhangula Maraba, Kgolokgotlha Mogabudi Ledwaba, Jonas Mantjiu, and Sethala Sema, went to work in the Cape Colony to acquire guns and avenge the death of Nkrosi Maraba II at the hands of Boers.
Upon their return, some of the men had converted to Christianity, mainly Anglicanism, and Lutheranism. The Morwasethula Primary School in Mapateng Village, which is named after Nkrosi Maraba III and is historically linked to the Anglican Church.
On the other hand, the Mashashane Primary School in Moshate Village had a link to the Evangelical Lutheran Church wherein the late Dr MJ Madiba wrote about the church in the Sesotho Sa Leboa children’s book, Mahlontebe IV, Lesson 24: Ntlokgolo ya Majakane.
The choice of Botsikana Secondary School in Segwahleng Village as a venue for the Maune Circuit’s Excellence Awards is relevant as its name is an important part of Mashashane local history. The school is named after the daughter of Nkrosi Sixhobejana Maraba, who was also the wife of Nkrosi Maraba III (Morwasethula).
Some of the award categories in the awards hosted by the Circuit managed by Dr Johannes Motona and located under the Capricorn North District included: Good performance in gateway subjects - Accounting, Mathematics, Physical Sciences, educators and subjects with distinctions, subjects that achieved 80% and more in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) results, schools’ awards, extra-mural, co-curricular activities, and the Circuit Managers’ awards.
In the schools’ awards category, specifically the 2025 NSC performance, Position 1 went to Dr MJ Madiba Secondary School (named after educationist, linguist, and author Dr Moses Josiah Madiba) for improved matric results from 77.4% in 2024 to 100% in 2025. As South Africa commemorates 50 years of the 16 June 1976 Soweto Uprising this year, my alma mater, located in Ga-Madiba Village, also marks its golden jubilee milestone.
Tlakale Mashashane Secondary School in Mandela Village, named after the Queen Mother Mokgaetji II Tlakale Mashashane, was celebrated for obtaining Position 2 with a 98.2% achievement and the highest number of bachelor passes, 101 or 61.1%.
In Position 3, having obtained a 98.0% matric pass rate, Mmatshipi Secondary School in Utjane Village takes its name from Nkrosi Maraba II’s first wife, Mmatshipi from the Bakgaga-Ba-Mphahlele royal house.
Overall, the Maune Circuit achieved an overall 94% matric pass rate for 2025 with the following quality attributes: Bachelor passes, 47.5%, and Bachelor and Diploma passes combined, 77.3%.
The circuit’s 2025 NSC results achievement surpassed the 88% at the national level, 86.15% for Limpopo Province, and 87.9% for the Capricorn North District.
Highlights and winners in the Circuit Manager’s Awards category include:
Mr Peter Sekhaolelo, an educator at Mashianoke Primary School, named after a Kganyago ancestor and situated in Monotwane Village. Sekhaolelo was recognised for outstanding contribution and dedication to the upliftment of school sports, wherein he also manages a softball team based in the village, with some of its former and current players, men and women, continuing to feature competitively in softball teams at the varsity, provincial, and national levels.
Mashianoke Primary School for obtaining Position 2 in the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) at the Provincial level.
Napo Primary School in Ga-Madiba Village for attainment of Position 1 in Schools Entrepreneurship Initiatives at the Capricorn District level.
Mr Edwin Rammutla, Principal of Tlakale Mashashane Secondary School, in recognition of outstanding instructional leadership and great contribution to the number of learners passing and the bachelor pass achievement in 2025 NSC results.
Dr Johannah Rapetsoa, Principal of Dr MJ Madiba Secondary School, in recognition of the 100% pass rate and great improvement in Bachelor passes in the 2025 NSC results.
Winners across categories received trophies, certificates and medals, with Old Mutual and Toshiba serving as main sponsors, with the hope to expand the awards in future and attract more sponsors to provide incentives such as laptops for top-performing schools, teachers and learners.
Africans, including my maternal and paternal folks, the Mothapos and the Maubanes, are historically migratory but have since built (baakhile) a life over five generations in Ga-Mashashane.
Additionally, my paternal grand-aunts, Kgoboko and Mperekeng, married into the Mashashane royal family, which I guess makes me no ordinary “mukhambi” and perhaps a licence to tell the local history with some degree of authority.
Maubane is a master’s student of public affairs at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and a former president of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA). He writes in his capacity as a Mohlonong Village, Ga-Mashashane local.
©Higher Education Media Services.