Why do SA’s taxpayers support these kings?

If they relied on donations, their standards of living would nosedive, Tom Lambe

The Oxford English Dictionary, which is generally recognised as the most precise English dictionary, defines the word Republic as “a country that is governed by a president and politicians elected by the people and where there is no king or queen”.

This leaves me somewhat mystified as South Africa has no less than seven kings who are paid fairly large salaries from the monies paid to the state by the taxpayers.

I would suspect that the majority of the country’s taxpayers have little or nothing to do with these seven kings, but are expected to support them.

I could understand if the “subjects” of the kings paid their salaries, but fail to understand why the general taxpayers should be expected to support them.

If the kings had to rely on donations from their “subjects”, I suspect that their standards of living would take a nosedive!