Malema, AfriForum and the Zulu king
AFRIKANERS: WORK WITH ZULU LEADER ON ISSUES OF SOCIAL IMPORTANCE
Malema ‘interested’ as rights group, union discuss land expropriation.
Despite being caught up in a court appearance yesterday morning in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court to face charges of incitement, EFF leader Julius Malema still found time to react to news that AfriForum and Solidarity met Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.
Malema called the news “interesting”. The Afrikaner groups met with Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini on Thursday and agreed to work together on “issues of social importance”.
CEO of AfriForum Kallie Kriel said this decision was made during their meeting with Zwelithini and his lawyer, Jerome Ngwenya, the chairperson of the king’s Ingonyama Trust. The king is the trust’s sole trustee.
Several points of mutual interest, Kriel said, were identified between the king and AfriForum, including the need for a good relationship among different cultural groups in the country based on mutual recognition and respect; a mutual concern about property expropriation without compensation; and the need for cooperation to build the local economy to benefit everyone.
Malema and AfriForum have long been bitter political opponents, with the rights group having dragged him to court more than once – starting in his days in the ANC Youth League when he was found guilty in court of hate speech for singing the slogan “Kill the boer”.
Malema has in the past also found himself at loggerheads with the Zulu king, to the point that some of his EFF members in KwaZulu-Natal urged him to apologise. He refused.
In March, Malema criticised Zwelithini for allegedly fanning black on black violence with his statements about expropriation of land without compensation.
Zwelithini had said anyone who tried to interfere with the land under his jurisdiction would face the wrath of the Zulus in a war similar to that waged by the Israelis and Palestinians over Jerusalem. He added that Zulus were as attached to their land as Muslims were to Mecca.
His comments, made during the opening of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature and later the provincial house of traditional leaders, sparked fears that Zulus could interpret it as a licence to attack those associated with land expropriation, particularly the EFF.
Malema warned Zwelithini to desist from threatening violence.
“The Zulu king must stop these threats of violence. We are not scared. I am scared of no one. No amount of violence can scare me because some of us are surprised that we are still alive today,” Malema said.
“We have never promised war on the Zulu king. We have never promised war on the whites. No one is talking war here. We are saying let us have a peaceful engagement.”
Malema said Zwelithini needed to be aware that any action that pitted blacks against blacks was unacceptable.
He also accused the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal of tiptoeing around the issue of land expropriation without compensation, despite the ANC national conference resolving in December to implement the policy.
He claimed this contradicted the ANC’s December conference decision.
The EFF, however, earlier this month had to make concessions to traditional leaders’ body Con- tralesa that it would rethink its policy of total expropriation of land, including of that already under the control of black people, particularly chiefs and kings.
It also agreed to cooperate and continue with mutual task teams and dialogue.
In the wake of Zwelithini’s huge unhappiness at the recommendations of a parliamentary high-level panel – that recommended people in rural KwaZulu-Natal should be given title deeds and the laws around the Ingonyama Trust be done away with – President Cyril Ramaphosa travelled to see the king to reassure him that this would not happen.
Many analysts interpreted this as a sign that the ANC may be concerned about losing support in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Some experts are of the view that the ANC is likely to lose significant support in the province anyway. –
We have never promised war on the Zulu king