Africa's wealthiest tribe dreaming big

The Royal Bafokeng Palace is a 44,000-seat sports stadium.

For tourists and weekenders from Johannesburg, the small town of Phokeng is just an unusually smooth section of the road to Sun City, South Africa's answer to Las Vegas.

Those who drive slowly might notice that the small houses and roadside businesses look a little tidier. Anyone who takes the time to stop might be struck by the gleaming sports stadium that is rising above the roof of the old school or the signpost to the civic centre of the Royal Bafokeng Nation.

Most will drive on, unaware that they have just passed through the homeland of Africa's richest tribe.

It is here, surrounded by the dry thornveld, that a young King, Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, is trying to break what has become known as Africa's resource curse - the awful paradox which has concentrated some of the continent's worst poverty and instability in areas boasting its greatest natural riches.

The Bafokeng's resource is platinum. Their tribal lands straddle some of the world's most valuable deposits of the precious metal. Kgosi's predecessors were sharp enough to acquire legal title to this land in the 19th century and then tough enough to defend that title against the advances of the Boers, the British Empire and the onslaught of apartheid.

What they purchased, in effect, was a remarkable lottery ticket that has continued to pay out.

The budget for this year stands at £92 million ($239 million), with almost all of that coming from platinum. That money has bought some very modern aspirations for a traditional community of 300,000, who in conjunction with the state, are still ruled by a Supreme Council of elders, 82-strong, and chaired by the 41-year-old King.

Kgosi was never supposed to be the King. It took the untimely deaths of both his elder brothers for the architect to find himself on the throne in 2000. His first response, say aides, was to take a step back before deciding that he was going to "think big".

Unveiling his masterplan to make sleepy Phokeng into something closer to Malaysia or Singapore, he told a stunned audience that rural development was "bland" and "defeatist".

"I want more than that for the Bafokeng people," he told them. "If you want to achieve big things, you have to take big calculated risks to reach beyond your limitations."

Those limits are immediately apparent. Most of his subjects are still poor and unemployment runs at 40 per cent. The Bafokeng have suffered from the perception that they don't need any assistance from the municipality.

There is already a glimpse of the future at the palace. Rather than a gaudy royal residence the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace is a 44,000-seater stadium which will host World Cup matches next year.

The King's vision for 2035 is of an economy driven by education, professional sport, IT and tourism. The only traditional aspect will be the people, who continue to own everything communally.

- INDEPENDENT