Greater co-operation between COGTA and Gauteng Traditional Leadership
‘To go back to tradition is the first step forward”. This old African proverb sums up the mandate of Traditional Affairs up perfectly. The work of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) sub-directorate: Traditional Affairs is primarily guided by the National Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, 2003 (Act no. 41 of 2003) and seeks to address the provincial peculiarities of the Gauteng Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, 2010 (Act no. 4 of 2010). In view of the fact that recognised traditional communities fall under municipal geographic areas, it is imperative that the COGTA department works towards greater collaboration and partnership between the two institutions.
Since the transfer of two traditional communities to Gauteng in 2007, COGTA has been inundated with requests for recognition from various community leaders in Gauteng. It is therefore imperative that COGTA, as well as the department of sports, arts, culture and recreation invest greater energy in outlining their traditional affairs functions and support they can provide to these communities.
As far as Traditional Affairs in the province are concerned, the mandate of the Gauteng COGTA aims to:
• Strengthen co-operative governance between municipalities and traditional leaders;
• Manage the institutional administrative and financial framework of traditional institutions;
• Draw up administrative policy guidelines and implement capacity building programmes;
• Support and strengthen the development capacity of traditional leadership and the institution; and
• To manage and register traditional land rights.
On December 23 2005, legislation came into force that resulted in the demarcation of the North West part of Tshwane (Soshanguve, Hammanskraal, and Winterveld) and some parts of Mpumalanga (Bronkhorstspruit) into Gauteng. It was through this demarcation process that the traditional communities of Amandebele ba Lebelo, Dilopye and the Amandebele Nzdunzda Sokhulumi became part of the Gauteng Traditional Leadership.
The Amandebele ba Lebelo traditional community subscribes to a traditional system and is led by a senior traditional leader, Acting Kgosi KC Kekana, while the Amandebele Ndzundza Sokhulumi is led by Acting Ikosi JJ Mahlangu. The Dilopye community on the other hand practices an adapted system of traditional leadership and is not led by a recognised traditional leader; instead, it is headed by elected office bearers.
Over the past years, significant achievements have been made within the Institution of Traditional Leadership, wherein the inkosi Mahlangu and Kgosi Kekana were reappointed into the National House of Traditional Leadership in November 2017. The two traditional leaders regularly participate in the council meetings of the City of Tshwane in terms of section 81 of the Municipal Structures Act. Four headmen/women were also appointed in the Amandebele ba Lebelo traditional community in Hammanskraal.
In order to regulate the Traditional Leadership in the province, legislation dictates that in order to be recognised as a traditional leader, a person must qualify in terms of the following:
• There should be a history of either a kingship, queenship, senior traditional leadership within his/her family, i.e. it should be proven that there is a history of royalty within that person’s family;
• The person should have a geographical area of jurisdiction from which the person presides over, i.e. land; and
• There should be a community that recognises the person as their traditional leader.
Initiation Schools
Our Constitution recognizes that the initiation ritual is important to us as human beings. These cultural practices bind us to our traditions and our histories.
The cultural practice of initiation is a rite of passage marking the formal admission of young men/women from childhood to adulthood. It also signifies the transformation of an initiate in the new role. In South Africa, male initiation has been practised for many years and government is obliged to support the traditional institutions to protect, promote and ensure the preservation of male and female initiation in line with the practices and customs of traditional communities.
The Gauteng province is therefore committed to:
• Recognise, protect, preserve, transform as well as provide an enabling environment for the development of the traditional communities, traditional institutions, customary law and customs;
• Define a place and role for traditional leadership within the system of democratic governance in south Africa; and
• Restore the integrity and legitimacy of the institution of the Traditional Leadership in line with the customary law and practice.
Gauteng has been cited as the province with the highest number of illegal initiation schools and these have primarily been