Pretoria - One person has been arrested in connection with the murder of land claimant, Chief Victor Velaphi Lekhuleni.
His lawyer Vivien de Klerk said one of the two people suspected of killing Lekhuleni was arrested this week. Lekhuleni, of Mamelodi East, who claimed to be the chief of Bakgatla Ba Lekhuleni communities, was gunned down in the neighbouring Mamelodi West last Tuesday.
Police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale did not respond to queries about the arrest.
De Klerk said Ndebele chiefs had agreed that Lekhuleni be buried as a chief in the early hours of Saturday.
There had been claims that Lekhuleni was not a real chief. De Klerk said: “The chiefs’ agreeing to bury him as a chief vindicates him.”
Lekhuleni would be buried in an unmarked grave by other Ndebele chiefs in line with Ndebele custom.
After the burial, a funeral ceremony will be held at the Mamelodi West hall from 6.30am.
Today a memorial service to be attended by various Ndebele chiefs will be held at the HM Pitje stadium.
Lekhuleni originally lodged the land claim covering almost half of the capital city, including part of the Magaliesberg mountain, in 1996. The commission did not immediately follow up on the claim.
Twice Lekhuleni had to turn to the court, the last time in August last year. The court ruled in his favour. The commission eventually published the land claim in February, sparking a huge outcry and panic from affected communities.
In claiming the land, Lekhuleni said forced removals from 1958 to 1960 by the apartheid government robbed Bakgatla communities of the right to land ownership. But
a group claiming to be the Lekhuleni royal family and council, said he was not royalty and had no right to claim land on their behalf.
Describing him as their distant cousin, members of the group, which lodged a claim for the same land, distanced themselves from him. The dispute forms part of the land claim probe.
Pretoria News