Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
vendalatest news & developments
Rocking Tshivenda: Muneyi, who was the winner of the 2024 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music, says that his next project will be wholly in his mother tongue.
CAPE TOWN ART FAIR

Muneyi: A decade of storytelling and musical integrity pays off

Muneyi, a poetic voice from Limpopo, blends folk and tradition into something urgent, modern and, finally, something celebrated

  • Kibo Ngowi
5 min read
Work from Noria Mabasa’s exhibition Shaping Dreams at the Nirox Sculpture Park. (Supplied by Lucky Lekalakala)
AFRICAN ART

Sculptor is shaping dreams

The work of 84-year-old artist Noria Mabasa explores traditions, mythology and spirituality

  • Oupa Nkosi
6 min read
Women have fewer rights to access land for homesteads and businesses in rural South Africa than men. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
BANTUSTAN

Democratise land rights in communal areas to unlock the rural economy

The former homelands and bantustans could offer opportunities to pursue activities that would curb poverty and unemployment

  • Bulelwa Mabasa
8 min read
Bheki Mtolo. (File photo)
APARTHEID

Apartheid-era high court boundaries to shift

The boundaries and jurisdictions of high courts in Transkei Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei have never been changed

  • Ray Hartle
5 min read
Phalaphala FM had long had an association with VBS, embarking on a series of charity events, including relief for impoverished schoolchildren, which the bank sponsored. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
DIRECTORATE FOR PRIORITY CRIME INVESTIGATION

SABC radio station ‘censored’ VBS talk

Listeners want Hawks to probe the public broadcaster for quashing coverage of the Venda king’s role in the cash scandal

  • Mpho Tshikhudo
6 min read
Potted history: Sian Tiley-Nel (right), chief curator of the Mapungubwe collection and assistant Helma Steenkamp. Photo: Stefan Heunis/AFP
ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETRY

Pottery dating reveals the origins of Venda

Dating techniques have traced the origins of the Venda language and culture to Mapungubwe, where two distinct cultures merged at initiation schools.

  • Sarah Evans
4 min read
South African-ness is a concept beyond merely nationality or citizenship. It is a set of ideas, traditions, values and behaviours. (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)
CAIRO MATHEBULA

The torment of being a ‘questionable’ South African

25 years into our democracy, South Africans are using similar tests on Africans.

  • Cairo Mathebula
4 min read
Awesome: The Mapungubwe National Park of Limpopo province is part of the Vhembe experience.
LAKE FUNDUDZI

In the heart of Africa’s Eden

The sights, history and people of Venda – almost too amazing to put into words – lure us from the beaten track

  • Shoks Mzolo
7 min read
Jonathan Jansen was prompted to carry out this study by the dearth of research about senior university management in South Africa
VENDA

Battle to salvage the soul of Venda’s sacred sites

A few dedicated souls are leading the fight to restore the spiritual relationship between the land and its people

  • Lucas Ledwaba
10 min read
The movement of children from ‘rural’ provinces to Gauteng and the Western Cape makes planning difficult for these provinces.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Admission patterns plague schools

Understanding migration and age dynamics can address placement problems

  • Eddie Rakabe
5 min read
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Nelson Mandela.
AFRICA

Letters to the editor: February 2 to February 8

Readers write in about KZN not being a bantustan, and the sad state of Africa

  • Letters
4 min read
JACOB ZUMA

Zuma ‘impressed’ by Venda women bowing down to him

President Jacob Zuma has come under fire for comments he made about Venda women.

  • Staff Reporter
3 min read
DOMBA

Rites of passage for vhatoi

For the first time in 35 years Vhavenda maidens gathered at their king’s kraal to learn the rituals of womanhood, writes Evidence wa ka Ngobeni. Photographs by Nadine Hutton…

  • Wisani wa ka Ngobeni
4 min read