Royal Bafokeng Nation

Oral tradition suggests that when they settled in the Rustenburg valley, it captured heavy overnight dew, holding the promise that the land would be fertile and hence that the community would prosper.

The Bafokeng have retained their unique cultural identity and traditional leadership structures and are led by a hereditary kgosi (king), currently Leruo Molotlegi.

The Merensky Reef, a foot-thick layer of platinum-rich rock in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, is part of the richest platinum deposit in the world.

Pooling community resources, he started buying back the land the Bafokeng had occupied for centuries from white colonialists.

Thirty-three years after Mokgatle's death, a part of the reef containing the world's largest deposit of platinum group metals were discovered under Bafokeng land.

During his reign, South Africa's ruling National Party had created the Bophuthatswana government as the authority over all Batswana people, including the Bafokeng.

Kgosi Lebone's opposition to the move brought him into conflict with the then Bophuthatswana president, Lucas Mangope, who detained the Bafokeng king and harassed him until he was forced to flee to neighbouring Botswana.

The nation has established a sovereign wealth fund, Royal Bafokeng Holdings, an investment entity in Johannesburg.

It is considered to be Africa's most progressive community investment model, with total assets under management at approximately $4 billion.

These include: RBN has also recruited several manufacturing companies to Phokeng as part of a drive to expand the nation's exports beyond raw materials and natural resources.

The Royal Bafokeng Nation praise idiom is “MaNape a Tshukudu E naka le nthla E tlhabang e itlhabela” (literally translated as "Nape the Rhino, with a sharp horn, that pierces as it pierces for itself" South African expressionist painter Maggie Laubser (1886–1973) painted in 1945 the portrait Annie of the Royal Bafokeng.