King Zwelithini calls for political calm
was a final nail in the coffin, he said.
“We spent hours saying that the minister was wrong. By all implication, with these two letters, McBride knew at all times..
“For me it’s a clear situation. There was a contract, it expired and the minister has a right not to renew,” he said.
Mbhele said they should not jump to conclusions. He said the important thing in the saga was the renewal of the contract.
He said the Ipid Act was specific that if there is a vacancy in the position of Ipid head, Parliament had up to a year to fill the vacancy.
“If anything, the minister has muddied the waters and complicated things. Now we have to do this process on an urgent basis,” said Mbhele.
Jerome Maake of the ANC said he was the one who asked for the two letters.
He said the letters helped clarify a number of issues that MPs were grappling with when they began the discussions.
He said it was not as if Cele woke up one day and decided not to renew McBride’s contract. Maake said there was a process already in place started by McBride last September and November, when he wrote to Cele in those two months. KING Goodwill Zwelithini has called for political calm and warned that the country faces losing international investment through intolerance among political parties during the election season.
Opening the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) legislature yesterday, the king called on parties in the province to campaign peacefully. He said parties should be prepared to accept defeat, as well as victory.
Addressing MPLs and other dignitaries in Zulu, the king said investors would be reluctant to invest in a country that did not have political tolerance and unity.
“Therefore it is important that political parties work with the Independent Electoral Commission, NGOs, religious groups, the media and traditional leaders for peaceful elections.
“Parties that lose should be careful of how they respond to the outcome, and a winning party should also be careful about how it celebrates, because if we have peaceful elections
Manzoor Shaik Emam
so much unemployment,” the king said. Zwelithini also backed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Thuma Mina campaign, saying it had the potential to boost the country’s economy, emphasising that KZN should invest more in agriculture.
“We can no longer rest on our laurels. We need a renewed energy and ability to turn things around in KZN. The cost of living has gone astronomically high. For us to live in these times, it will call for a new way of thinking.
“I guess this is the same spirit of Thuma Mina that the State president has been preaching,” he said.
Zwelithini also expressed support for agriculture, which he described as the backbone of “every civilised society the world over”.
He said instead of importing food from other countries, South Africa should be turned into a Garden of Eden through agriculture.
He said through hard work, KZN had the potential to produce enough food to supply the whole country, as well as neighbouring countries.
Outgoing Premier Willies Mchunu, who will be delivering his State of the Province Address today, said the king’s call for tolerance was relevant since the province had been experiencing a surge in the killing of politicians.
“The calm will never happen if we don’t have respect for each other, which the king talked about,” said Mchunu.