THE Free State High Court has ordered Premier MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae to decide within 30 days whether Gaboilelwe Moroka should be formally recognised as Kgosi of the Barolong Boo Seleka Traditional Community, ruling that the prolonged failure to deal with her recognition was unlawful.
Judges P.E. Molitsoane and C. Reinders reviewed and set aside the Premier’s failure to take a decision on Moroka’s recognition and remitted the matter to the Premier for determination under the Free State Traditional Leadership and Governance Act.
The Premier was also ordered to pay the applicants’ legal costs, including the costs of two counsel where employed.
Moroka, who is currently recognised as Motshwaredi, or Regent, was identified by the Barolong Boo Seleka Royal Family Council as Kgosi at a meeting on 24 April 2024.
Two days later, the council formally asked the Premier to recognise her as senior traditional leader.
The application was the latest chapter in a leadership dispute stretching back decades and involving competing claims over the legitimate royal lineage of the Barolong Boo Seleka.
Moroka claims her entitlement through the Tshipinare lineage, while fifth respondent Archibald Letshego Moroka disputed her genealogy and argued that customary succession was based on male primogeniture.
He maintained that, as the son of the late Kgosi Sehunelo Kingsley Moroka and a direct descendant of Kgosi Moroka II, he was entitled to the position.
The court, however, stressed that the case before it was not about deciding who should ultimately occupy the throne, but whether the Premier had lawfully discharged the statutory duty to deal with the Royal Family’s identification.
Molitsoane said the power to identify a Kgosi rested with the Royal Family, while the Premier’s role was to consider and act upon that identification in accordance with the legislation.
The judgment noted that the Premier’s office acknowledged the April 2024 request and later sought clarity about the status of an heir previously referred to when Moroka was appointed Regent.
Further correspondence followed, but no decision was made.
The court found there could be no dispute that the Royal Family had identified Moroka and communicated its decision to the Premier.
It said the history of non-engagement had affected both Moroka and the community.
Under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, an administrator’s failure to make a decision which they are legally obliged to take is reviewable.
The court said the Premier could not simply remain silent.
If there were concerns that the identification had not complied with customary law or customary processes, the Act provided mechanisms for the Premier to refer the matter to the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders or back to the Royal Family.
While Moroka asked the court effectively to grant the recognition itself, the judges declined to substitute their own decision for that of the Premier.
Given that the underlying chieftainship dispute remained unresolved, the court held that the appropriate remedy was to send the matter back to the Premier for a decision.
The judgment was delivered on 5 August 2026 following a hearing on 20 October 2025.