The Rain Queen, Makobo Modjadji the Sixth, was buried at the royal cemetery at Ga-Modjadji in Limpopo on Monday, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported.
Only family members attended the funeral and thousands of mourners waited outside the cemetery.
The funeral comes after infighting between two rival royal councils that both claimed the right to arrange the funeral, and the disappearance of the queen’s younger brother, News Mpapatla Modjadji (25).
Meanwhile, the coffin containing the body of Modjadji was rescued from a fire at the house of chief of the Balobedu people on Sunday night, said Limpopo police spokesperson Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe.
He said the police are still investigating the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage.
Council spokesperson Clement Modjadji said the queen died two days after being admitted to the Medi-Clinic in Polokwane.
He said she had been vomiting and her family had decided to get medical help.
The News24 website reported on Monday that medical reports in the family’s possession showed that Makobo Modjadji died of ”chronic meningitis”.
Meanwhile, David Mogale — the former municipal manager from Limpopo who is said to have had an affair with the queen and fathered her second child — alleged that the queen had been poisoned.
Modjadji denied this, saying the family did not know Mogale.
The report said that Modjadji did not want to confirm or deny whether Mogale, a married man, had had a romantic relationship with the Rain Queen.
At her inauguration in April 2003, the rain at the ceremony was seen as a good omen.
At 25, she was the youngest Rain Queen and the first to have received an education. She was chosen as the successor after her mother, Princess Maria Modjadji, died two days before Queen Modjadji the fifth.
However her alleged affair with Mogale apparently caused a scandal within the royal household.
According to custom, the Rain Queen never marries. She is allowed ”wives” — normally from the household of subject chiefs — who are chosen by the Royal Council. The ”wives” serve to foster good relations between the queen and the chiefs.
The Star newspaper reported that the late queen’s alleged lover and father of her three-month-old child is on the rival council that claimed rights to bury her.
Apart from ruling over the Balobedu tribe, the queen is also considered to be a rain maker.
Modjadji said the issue of a successor for the queen would only arise ”long after the funeral”. – Sapa