King warns ANC on land issue
KING Goodwill Zwelithini has issued a stern warning to the ANC-led government, saying he could instruct his subjects to withhold their votes should it dismantle the Ingonyama Trust, a body that holds all pieces of communal land in KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the king.
Zwelithini was speaking in Ulundi yesterday, during a meeting with amakhosi from across the province.
The government has been in a stand-off with the king after former president Kgalema Motlanthe’s high-level panel recommended to Parliament that it scrap the legislation on the trust because it was unconstitutional.
Motlanthe’s report suggested that all the land under the trust’s administration be surrendered to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, a process that would make equal distribution possible.
“I need to speak to the president urgently, so that he can explain why is it that when we are talking about land, this one is targeted. Our land is fertile, that is why they are provoking us; we know war but we want to be warriors of peace,” he said.
The king also reminded the ruling party to clean up its house.
“They must fix their own problems within the ANC and stop bothering us,” he said.
The king said he would not allow his subjects to be abused by the democratic government, like they suffered under apartheid.
“Today there are people who want to tell us that our land will be taken; who did we take this land from? We are being judged by people who don’t know us, who have no intention to know us. They are abusing their power,” he said.
The king also called for support, not only from Zulu-speaking South Africans, but all those who lived under his leadership, no matter the colour of their skin.
“Let us not underestimate this war against us; South Africa hates us. I wish that we hold hands and overcome this,” he said.
Zwelithini explained that his gripe with Motlanthe was not that the former president had a different opinion, but rather that they wanted to force acceptance of their opinions.
“We asked him (Motlanthe) to come a meeting at the ICC. This invitation had good in- tentions, because we wanted to understand these recommendations.
“Those were good intentions from our side, to give him and his team an opportunity to give us an explanation,” he added.
The king said the matter was used to provoke the “peaceful” Zulu nation and that it needed to be finalised once and for all.
He also suggested the Zulu nation was always under attack, saying perhaps they were not welcome in democratic South Africa. “We are being treated as illegitimate children of this country… We are hurt by this ANC government we respect,” he said.
In the meantime, the king announced that the Ingonyama Trust would be taking the legal route to challenge the proposed dissolution of the trust.