Government is siding with those running SA’s new apartheid

KING Goodwill Zwelithini has rightly been roundly condemned for his incendiary comments, which sparked deadly attacks on foreigners in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and on the Reef last month.

He later claimed to have been misunderstood, and tried to make up for it with a rally where he implored people to be nice to foreigners. “If it was true I said people must kill each other, the whole country would have been reduced to ashes,” he boasted.

The man is obviously feeling his oats.

The idea of chieftainship is something of a fly in the democratic ointment. It was the form of government in pre-colonial times, but chieftainship was later used as a tool to subjugate black people.

Chiefs were viewed as apartheid’s handmaidens even by their own subjects, and they were often made to run the gauntlet by anti-apartheid forces. It’s not an accident that most homeland leaders were tribal chiefs.

Under the KwaZulu bantustan, Zwelithini was king in name only. He was always under the thumb of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who often treated him like his lickspittle. During the negotiations he stuck with Buthelezi in vociferously resisting the advent of democracy. It was only after Nelson Mandela had guaranteed special status for the Zulu monarchy that he relented.

ANC supporters, having fiercely opposed the chiefs during the anti-apartheid struggle, were stunned when their party, once in power, suddenly embraced them.

And now that the ANC pays, the chiefs are dancing to its tune. But King Zwelithini, although he has the lion’s share of the traditional leadership budget, does not always oblige.

People in rural areas continue to live not in a democracy but under conditions akin to a dictatorship. Their rights and privileges can only be exercised with the consent or approval of the chiefs or king. It’s a new form of apartheid.

King Zwelithini’s xenophobic comments and the firestorm they caused may have taken some by surprise. But he has become more bellicose since President Jacob Zuma came to power. Zuma may be the president, but, as a Zulu, he is King Zwelithini’s subject.

When Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba gently suggested he should have chosen his words more carefully, King Zwelithini saw that as a slight on his character. Gigaba was summoned to a meeting, where he grovelled. Again, Gigaba may be a senior member of government, but to him, he’s one of his subjects. Tradition muddies the water.

The attention and status have emboldened King Zwelithini. He has made known his intention to make massive land claims that will include part of the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, the Free State and Gauteng.

Shortly after his comments on foreigners, he was on his soapbox again, criticising government legislation that requires a polygamous man to get written permission from his wife before marrying another woman. The law, he said, was disempowering men.

But it is the king’s control of all tribal land in KwaZulu-Natal that is having a detrimental effect on ordinary people.

Shortly before its demise, the apartheid government passed the KwaZulu Ingonyama Trust Act, in terms of which land is held in trust by the king for the “benefit, material welfare and social wellbeing” of communities living on the land.

It is estimated that three million hectares of land, about a third of the province, with four million people on it, is administered by the trust.

The act also specifies that the Ingonyama Trust “shall not infringe upon any existing rights or interests”. But there’s growing evidence to suggest that the trust or local chiefs acting on behalf of the king are riding roughshod over people’s rights.

Rural areas have become attractive for those searching for mineral deposits. Prospectors, with their gleeful BEE partners in tow, are scouring these areas for riches. Families who have occupied such lands for generations suddenly have their rights turned into leases, and prospecting deals are entered into with mining companies without consultation with communities.

People are living in fear of being physically harmed. A case in point is Ekuthuleni and Makhasaneni, both rural areas outside Melmoth in northern KwaZulu-Natal, where some residents have had their houses burnt down and others fear for their lives, because they oppose the local chief’s intention to make deals with a mining company without involving the community.

These struggles are not confined to KwaZulu-Natal.

The Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela community from North West have taken their fight with their chief to the Constitutional Court. Their land is rich in platinum deposits.

South Africa may be a democracy, but people in rural areas are still living under a feudal system that refuses to recognise that times have changed. And the government, instead of aiding the weak, is siding with the powerful. Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za