While paying tribute to his nephew at the funeral in Xikundu on Saturday, Hosi Shilungwa Mhinga, Chabane's uncle and chief of the Mhinga clan, told Zuma that Chabane shared his community's view that the area be granted its request for a municipality, according to the paper.

Collins Chabane's family insisted that President Jacob Zuma establish a separate municipality for the people of Malamulele in Limpopo, City Press reported on Sunday.

While paying tribute to his nephew at the funeral in Xikundu on Saturday, Hosi Shilungwa Mhinga, Chabane's uncle and chief of the Mhinga clan, told Zuma that Chabane shared his community's view that the area be granted its request for a municipality, according to the paper.

Mhinga also asked that the new municipality be named after Chabane.

"It was his wish that Malamulele be granted a municipality. As a family, we would also request that the municipality be called Collins Chabane municipality," Mhinga reportedly said.

"I appeal to you, Mr President, that you provide us with a municipality to have infrastructure so that we can develop this area. This is what Collins would have loved us to do," he said.

Protests erupted in Malamulele last year before the May general elections, and re-ignited earlier this year with residents demanding their own municipality.

The Municipal Demarcation Board announced in January that Malamulele did not qualify for its own municipality.

Residents claim the Thulamela municipality has been channelling services to Tshivenda-speaking areas, rather than their own, which is dominated by Xitsonga speakers.