Mambo dynasty fumes over ‘Ndebele King’
THE Mambo Dynasty Trust says the claimant to the Ndebele throne, Mr Stanley Raphael Khumalo, has gone too far in his political antics which border on treason following his call for the invasion of the State House in Bulawayo and secession from the rest of the country.
The Mambo Dynasty Trust is an organisation that was formed to retrace and revive cultural traditions, customs, correct social order, research and re-write the history of the Lozwi Empire which was destroyed by various groupings which invaded present day Zimbabwe during the Mfecane period. The trust is chaired by a Zimbabwean businessman based in South Africa, Mr Mike Moyo who has interests in the security and property sectors.
Last week on Tuesday Mr Mike Moyo and a member of his committee, Mr Edward Moyo told Sunday News in separate interviews that Mr Khumalo who all along has been using the surname Tshuma, was treading on dangerous waters and should be immediately stopped in his tracks.
The pair’s comments followed reports that Mr Khumalo recently took his treasonous antics to another level when he unveiled what he said was the flag for the Mthwakazi Kingdom which would replace the national flag in parts of the country that fall under his “revived empire.” That came after Mr Khumalo, wrote to President Mugabe demanding keys to the State House in Bulawayo, which he claimed was his official residence.
“As the Mambo Dynasty we feel that this Stanley Raphael Khumalo has gone too far. But at the same time we feel that his claim is based on a dream, so it will remain a dream. Anybody can dream, if one dreams of being a President that doesn’t mean that person will wake up as the President of the country,” said Mr Mike Moyo.
“However, Stanley Khumalo should respect the Mambo people who are found all over Matabeleland and Zimbabweans in general. Anyway we have never taken him seriously but his behaviour is irritating and his dream is going too far and it is now time for him to wake up.”
Mr Mike Moyo also warned other Khumalos allegedly working on another parallel forum for the restoration of the Ndebele Kingdom. He said it was time that the so-called destroyed royal families treat everyone who uses the Ndebele language in their daily lives with respect.
“Our feeling is that people should be consulted at a national level if there is anything to do with resuscitating of a king, we as the descendants of Mambo we are not ready. Those so-called members of the royal family should realise that the Ndebele people include all people in Matabeleland, those who speak isiNdebele as their mother tongue and even us the Mambos it is now our language. This is because there has been a language loss and we have been using isiNdebele for almost 200 years now. Mzilikazi brought Nguni into Zimbabwe and not isiNdebele. IsiNdebele was developed here, so it is not exclusively their language.”
He also said as the Mambo Dynasty they were working on identifying chiefs from all non-Nguni people who were chiefs before 1835. Mr Mike Moyo called on the Nguni chiefs in Matabeleland to share their jurisdictions with King Mambo former chiefs.
“It is time that we have the subjects of King Mambo also being reinstalled as chiefs. We are appealing to the Nguni chiefs to come to the party and agree to share areas under their rule.”.
Mr Edward Moyo, who is a former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) director-general and spent a number of years as a consultant at Unesco chipped in and said as the descendants of Mambo it was time they were given their rightful place.