Mabelane

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The Mabelane is a Northern Sotho, Sepedi speaking, tribe that had settled in an area north-east of the town of Lydenburg (between the towns of Burgersfort on the north and Ohrigstad on the east) in South Africa. The origin of the tribe is Cabo Mabelane, a coastal town in Southern Mozambique^[1] from where the founder of the tribe, Mokgadi, came from. Mokgadi's two sons, Mareologo (eldest) and Tshegwane are thought to have been the first to use the town of their father's origin as an official written surname.^{[citation needed]}

The tribe was forcibly moved in the early 1960's as part of South African government's apartheid policy of settling blacks into what became known as homelands.^{[citation needed]} In recent times (2005 to date) the tribe has lodged a successful land claim and have registered a Communal Property Association called Batau Baga Mabelane to administer their land.^{[citation needed]} A process of compiling an official demographic of the tribe has began.

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