Human Rights Commission sees king’s advisers over complaints
THE SA Human Rights Commission met King Goodwill Zwelithini’s advisers at the Royal Household Trust office in Durban yesterday, as part of consultations the commission is conducting after receiving complaints about the king’s speech about foreigners.
On Monday, the commission consulted complainants from KwaZulu-Natal who had also made submissions.
The complaints were about a speech the king delivered during a moral regeneration event in Pongola in March, at which he allegedly called for foreigners to pack up and leave the country.
This speech was linked by some to the xenophobic attacks which started in Durban and spread to other parts of the province and to Gauteng.
The commission’s chairman, Lawrence Mushwana, and commissioner Lindiwe Mokate conducted the consultations this week.
An adviser to the king, Jerome Ngwenya, confirmed that the meeting was held.
A commission spokesman, Isaac Mangena, said the commission was in the final stages of collating information “in respect of the high number of complaints it has received relating to the recent violent attacks in the KZN province earlier this year”. He said the commission intended making a preliminary finding next month.
Mangena said the probing of these complaints formed part of the commission’s broader investigation of the root causes of the attacks on foreigners in the country.
He said the complaints were being dealt with in terms of the commission’s complaints handling procedures, “which dictate that we consult with complainants and respondents during investigations”.
He said meetings with complainants in Gauteng, many of which related to the alleged comments by the king, took place on Friday.
“The office of the king has agreed to fully co-operate with the commission and will provide its responses to the preliminary probe by the commission at a date agreed to.”
Last month, Mushwana said the commission was struggling to get hold of the original transcript of the king’s speech, but Mangena said “all those outstanding issues have been sorted out”.
He said more than 20 complaints about xenophobia had been reported, with the majority of them being against King Goodwill Zwelithini.