Naively, he fell victim to divide-and-rule strategy

FOR CLARITY, from the outset, we must state that if there is any real positive contribution that kings bring to a democratic society, financial or otherwise, it is so minimal that humanity can survive easily without those contributions. Otherwise, kings belong to the past.

They, like all other humanmade institutions, are simply a product of the material development of nature and are therefore not a general rule for the existence of humankind.

As such, like all other creations of human beings, they must at some point in the development of society die out and be replaced by other institutions that better befit that era.

K i n g Zwelithini’s love and praise for apartheid should be seen in this context (“King praises apartheid”, December 7).

Because he has not learnt any of the laws of development of nature generally, and human beings in particular, it does not even click in his royal mind why the apartheid regime treated him with “respect” while brutalising the rest of the black population.

If he could care to read at least two sentences of any factual history book on apartheid, he would realise that the apartheid regime never gave him two cents of respect.

Their “respect” for him was only in so far as it was a means to divide the black population so that some individuals like King Zwelithini would believe they were honourable upperclass citizens.

It was a divide-and-rule strategy. The apartheid regime never cared a bit about any African king.

King Zwelithini should, instead of ridiculing the black government, be thanking it for the millions of rand he receives every year, including the millions more he demands when he has exceeded his budget!

The apartheid regime never cared a bit about any African king

Bothaville, Free State