Kgosi Leruo Tshekedi Molotlegi of the Royal Bafokeng Nation rarely grants interviews. He is more a man of deeds

About two hours’ drive from Johannesburg lies one of Africa’s smallest yet most thriving kingdoms, that of the Royal Bafokeng, a place not widely known outside South Africa – at least, not until recently.

Even less known was its king, Kgosi Leruo Tshekedi Molotlegi, who runs this jewel in the African bushveld like a major business corporation.

That anonymity changed in June 2010 when South Africa hosted the Fifa Soccer World Cup.

Suddenly, this 36th recorded King of the Royal Bafokeng Nation – a very private person who avoids the limelight – found himself in the full glare of international publicity, surrounded by statesmen, royalty and other A-list celebrities from around the world.

The tiny kingdom, founded in the mid-15th century, comprises about 1 400 square kilometres and has a population of about 300 000, of whom roughly half live within the kingdom.

Travellers passing through the capital Phokeng on their way to Sun City may not even notice it, except perhaps for the gleaming sports stadium where some of the recent World Cup matches were played.

But if they look around more closely, they will notice many other things: better streets, neater looking houses and businesses than the neighbouring areas, a new R540-million private school, an architecturally striking civic centre, mines and much more.

These days the kingdom, through its communally owned investment and development arm, has investments worth more than R32 billion, has R3.62bn in the bank, receives annual dividends from its portfolio of 18 companies, and has an annual budget of around R800 million.

All of this thanks to platinum. For the kingdom just happens to sit atop an estimated 40% of the world’s most valuable mineral resource.

But it has not always been that way. Over the centuries, the kingdom has had to withstand successive threats to its existence: first from waves of immigrants from other parts of Africa, then the land-seeking Boers, or Voortrekkers, who arrived in the early 1800s; followed by gold-seekers from around the globe, the marauding British Empire, the injustices of apartheid and bantustan rule, and the mining companies that arrived after the discovery of platinum.

Kgosi Leruo’s shrewd royal ancestors took precautionary measures. Advised by the last Boer president of the Transvaal Paul Kruger, to gain legal title to his traditional lands to avoid losing it to the wave of arriving whites, Kgosi Mokgatle dispatched the young men of his tribe to the diamond mines in Kimberley.

With the money they earned there, the Bafokeng bought up farmland that had been granted to white farmers – land they had always regarded as their own.

When the Natives Land Act of 1913 prevented blacks from owning land, they made the Lutheran missionaries in the area the temporary custodians of their land.

Under apartheid and the homeland government of Bophuthatswana, they had to resist more pressures, forcing into exile the king at the time.

Next there followed a nine-year court battle with Impala Platinum Holdings, which resulted in the Bafokeng finally being awarded 22% royalties on all the platinum mined in the kingdom just over a decade ago.

The rest is a fairy tale that continues.

Today, Kgosi Leruo continues to build the legacy of his visionary ancestors. Ironically, he was never meant to be king, but was unexpectedly thrust onto the throne by the untimely deaths of his two elder brothers who had preceded him.

While seeking to maximise sustainable development for his people, the preservation of their cultural heritage is of equal importance.

“The Bafokeng vision and strategy for development has always maintained that Bafokeng history and heritage will be enhanced, rather than abandoned, in the pursuit of sustainable development,” explains Dr Sue Cook, an American anthropologist who came here from New Haven to study the Bafokeng and ended up becoming part of the community.

Today, she is one of the king’s advisers, working as research and planning executive.

“Kgosi is a strong supporter of Bafokeng cultural and material history, and his personal passion is the built environment, and making sure that one experiences a distinct sense of ‘place’ when visiting the Bafokeng Nation,” says Cook. “Architecture, language, dress, cuisine, music, and art are some other areas he seeks to actively promote as elements of contemporary Bafokeng culture.”

On the nation’s official website, it is proudly stated that “the 29 villages of the Royal Bafokeng Nation boast some of the most innovative approaches to sustainable development in Africa. These include holistic education reform, the use of sport to generate social and economic momentum, and converting mineral resources into the world’s leading community-based investment company.”

In short, under Kgosi Leruo’s leadership, the nation’s vision is to develop itself into a completely self-sufficient community by the second decade of the 21st century.

Having ascended to the throne through a complex set of rules governing succession, Kgosi Leruo now rules as chairperson of the 82-member Bafokeng Supreme Council.

However, having a nominally ‘independent’ kingdom within a republican constitutional democracy suggests something of a paradox.

Dr Cook explains: “Traditional leaders are recognised under the South African Constitution. The recent opinion on kingships endorsed by President [Jacob] Zuma did not mention any of the Tswana chieftaincies because they are historically not paramountcies, like the Nguni communities.

“The Royal Bafokeng Nation is governed by a combination of hereditary and elected leaders, who make up the Bafokeng Supreme Council.

“It is not an absolute monarchy and it’s not exempt from the South African Constitution and legal code.”

In terms of international diplomacy and protocol, the king is recognised by other governments and monarchs. But perhaps because of his dual role as the monarch and the corporate head of his kingdom, he travels to other countries both as royalty with special privileges and as a private person.

“He often travels in his capacity as the executive head of the Bafokeng Nation. His interlocutors recognise him as royalty and treat him as such,” says Cook.

“In Phokeng, he has received heads of state, ambassadors and other senior officials as his peers and counterparts.”

Kgosi Leruo’s immediate family consists of his mother, Mmemogolo (meaning “Queen Mother”) Semane Molotlegi, a semi-retired ambassador for the Bafokeng community who remains actively involved in issues related to health, education and gender empowerment.

His brother, crown prince Bothata, is a businessman, while his one sister, Motswana, is an interior designer and his other sister, Tirelo, is an interior decorator and event planner.

As Kgosi Leruo does not as yet have a son of his own, crown prince Bothata is next in line to the throne.

Kgosi Leruo attended Hilton College in KwaZulu-Natal before obtaining a degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal). He is a keen sportsman and was awarded the Victor Ludorum Gold Medallion at Hilton College.

But the idea for building the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace, the impressive stadium that is home to the Platinum Leopards rugby team and the Platinum Stars soccer team, was not his: he merely completed a vision that his late brother, Kgosi Lebone II, had more than a decade ago to attract international sporting events in the promotion of tourism to the kingdom.

Few of his subjects probably believed back then that indeed one day they would witness football’s biggest extravaganza in their own backyard, as their king had predicted.

Another side of Kgosi Leruo is his passion for aviation, a field of interest that he actively promotes to young black South Africans who he believes are underrepresented in the South African Air Force. He is himself a fixed wing and rotorcraft pilot and honorary colonel in the Air Force.

As chancellor of the North-West University, Kgosi Leruo is working to raise academic standards on the historically disadvantaged campuses, and is encouraging all campuses to become more involved in the upgrading of primary and secondary education in the country.

He is a forceful advocate for education reform in South Africa, and has made it his highest priority for the immediate future.

In this regard, Kgosi Leruo certainly puts his money where his mouth is. He created the Bafokeng Institute to train teachers and principals, and recruited his one-time high school mathematics teacher, Ian McLachlan, to run it.

He has built schools and ensured that extra maths and science classes are run for the kingdom’s school children during holidays.

Then there is the impressive new private school that he built with the aim of attracting some of the best teachers in the world to teach some 800 children from pre-school to high school. Of this project, he has said that it is not “a school for the wealthy”, but rather one for talented children whatever their material background.

While much of the money to fund all these projects comes from mining dividends, the king’s vision for wealth creation goes far beyond that. It is for this reason that the kingdom adopted its 30-year master plan, called Vision 2020, in August 2006.

The plan, devised in conjunction with Singapore-based urban design consultant Surbana, is aimed at creating an environment in which people live with dignity and have access to facilities – health, education, recreation and employment – thus enabling them to maximise their abilities and talents.

Kgosi Leruo is acutely aware of the danger of reliance on mining royalties only. He says that while the Bafokeng are the single largest investor in Impala Platinum, and much of the nation’s income derives from that source, in order for the Bafokeng “to achieve sustainability as a community, the long-term health of our income stream is essential. We are blessed with natural resources, but diversification of our investments is also critical so that we can weather any storm.

“The Bafokeng leadership and administration have set the bar high, in consultation with the community, on the understanding that each and every one of us is playing our part. Making the necessary sacrifices to send children to school well rested, well dressed and well fed; taking the opportunity to improve ourselves as business people, parents and professionals.

“I want nothing more than the establishment of a well-educated, healthy, prosperous and safe community, and I will devote myself 110% to the realisation of these goals over the coming years,” he adds.

It may well turn out that just like the entrepreneurial vision of one man turned nearby Sun City into the money-spinning Las Vegas of Africa, the social and developmental vision of Kgosi Leruo and his fellow Bafokeng could yet turn this once anonymous little corner of South Africa into the next Singapore of the world.

Stef Terblanche