Elegant in traditional attire and eloquent in modern argument, two traditional leaders argued that the proposed constitutional text fell short of what the guiding Constitutional Principle required. In rejecting this argument, the Constitutional Court stated that the text gave 'express guarantees of the continued existence of traditional leadership and the survival of an evolving customary law. The court also pointed out that the way was open for traditional leadership to be involved in democratic government without any particular form being prescribed. Sekhukhune is one area of the country where the 'complicated, varied and ever-developing specifics' of traditional leadership functioning in the wider democratic society can most usefully be studied. An area rich in struggle, it might today be poor in resources, but it is by no means a stagnant backwater isolated from major social movement.
People stream backwards and forwards.
A young Dutch lawyer and political scientist, she learnt the Sepedi language and spent the year October 1998 to November 1999 in the area. This book is a narration of some of her experiences. I read it with total absorption, great pleasure and extreme sadness. The pleasure came from the spirited and seductive manner in which she slips the reader into the situations which she describes. She poses issues sharply and provides an evocative sense of time, place and personality.