Anger, tears, threats over the land issue

Traditional leaders feel as if they are being provoked, writes Lungani Zungu

TRADITIONAL leaders in Kwazulunatal have rushed to the defence of King Goodwill Zwelithini and dared those who want to take land that belongs to the Ingonyama Trust to “bring it on”.

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe was lambasted during an event held in Umzinyathi on Friday to celebrate the millionth man in the province to be circumcised in the antihiv/aids campaign inspired by the king.

Speaker after speaker fired a broadside at Motlanthe who recently said tribal leaders behaved like village tin-pot dictators. Motlanthe chaired a high-level panel assembled by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the land reform programme.

Leading the charge was Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza, chairperson of the provincial house of traditional leaders, who said Motlanthe was provoking traditional leaders.

Chiliza broke into tears during his speech as he ventilated his anger. As he dragged himself through the speech, wiping tears from his face, King Goodwill Zwelithini could be heard asking people who were seated on stage to give him water.

Chiliza pulled himself together and continued to rage about what Motlanthe had said. Inkosi Mqoqi Ngcobo said: “Those who want to take our land must take it and they will see what we are made of. We are tired of being provoked.”

Afterwards Chiliza said he had cried because Motlanthe was “stirring a war”.

“We don’t want any blood to be shed in our name, so the ANC must condemn Motlanthe before it’s too late,” he said.

Chiliza warned that the general elections next year might be marred by chaos if the Ancled government went ahead with expropriating tribal land.

He accused Motlanthe of not consulting traditional leaders before tabling his report to the Cabinet.

Chiliza said the king’s subjects were ready for any eventuality and would fight to protect their king.

Like Chiliza, King Zwelithini, who was the keynote speaker at the event, warned of war should the ANC proceed with expropriating tribal land. The ANC adopted an expropriation of land without compensation policy at its national conference in December last year, prompting a tug-of-war between those who supported it and those who opposed it. “I don’t want to see a war in this province,”said the king. “I’m pleading with the government not to take the land that belongs to people from rural villages because they will retaliate and blood will be shed. I don’t want to see that happening,” he said. Kwazulu-natal Premier Willies Mchunu also expressed his concerns about the manner in which Motlanthe handled the issue.

Mchunu said as provincial leaders they would take up the matter with the national leadership. While on stage, Mchunu turned to King Zwelithini, slightly bowed forward, clasping his hands together in a gesture of respect, as if apologising to the King, who in return nodded his head.

Commenting on the issues arising, political analyst Bheki Mngomezulu, politics lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, said if the ANC did not call Motlanthe to order it would suffer at the national elections next year.

“The ANC has a huge support base in rural areas and I think Motlanthe was negligent on how he handled the issue. I don’t think he understands the importance of the rural vote.” FORMER President Kgalema Motlanthe has urged the ANC to pay as much attention to land tenure rights in rural areas as it would in the urban areas. Motlanthe recently said that: “The people had high hopes that the ANC would liberate them from the confines of the homelands system. Clearly now, we are the ones saying land must go to traditional leaders and not the people.”

Motlanthe said the Zulu kingdom’s Ingonyama Trust was an act signed into being just three days before South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 by the then white Parliament.

Motlanthe said this was primarily done to preserve the Zulu homeland, but in the process resulted in people being dispossessed in their land and eventually being incorporated into the Ingonyama Trust. Motlanthe raised concerns over the people who were removed from their land and were now having to lease land.

“The approach which confronts us as the ANC, must really be to understand that the

ANC enjoys support from the people, not traditional leaders, some pledge their support to the ANC. Majority of them are acting as village tin-pot dictators to the people there in the villages,” said Motlanthe.