King praises apartheid regime
Bongani Hans, The Mercury, Durban, 7 December 2015
King Goodwill Zwelithini praised the apartheid era during an event in
Nongoma at the weekend.
The National Party, he said, had built a powerful government with the
strongest economy and army on the continent, but then came "this so-called
democracy" in which black people started destroying the gains of the past.
The king said history would judge black people harshly as they had failed to
build on the successes of the Afrikaner regime.
The king was speaking at his kwaKhethomthandayo royal palace in Nongoma on
Saturday night during a celebration of his 44 years on the throne.
He said black people "loved to use matches" to burn down infrastructure
built during apartheid.
Happy for 1948
Delivering a speech which ended just after midnight, the king told hundreds
of people packed into a big marquee that he felt lucky that he was born the
same year the National Party came to power in 1948.
The king's speech came in the wake of a series of anti-government statements
made by the monarch of the Zulu nation in recent months. In September, King
Zwelithini ordered that there should be no government banners at royal
events, and that the government should stop organising the events.
He said on Saturday that this was the first time his anniversary
celebrations had been organised by the King Zwelithini Foundation.
The king said the apartheid regime had built a mighty army. He said the
South African currency and economy "surprisingly shot up" under the National
Party regime.
"The economy that we are now burning down. You do not want to build on what
you had inherited. You are going to find yourselves on the wrong side of
history."
He said while people on the ground did not appreciate the infrastructure
inherited from apartheid, democratically elected presidents - Nelson
Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma - were occupying apartheid
infrastructure, including the Union Buildings and Parliament.
"I am surprised that all presidents who have been in the so-called democracy
occupied apartheid buildings where they make all these laws that are
oppressing us.
"But you on the ground are burning everything that you found here.
"You don't want to use them (buildings), you say this is apartheid
infrastructure. Your leaders are occupying buildings where apartheid laws
were made to oppress you," the king said.
Despite the National Party's having created anti-black laws, he was happy
that it had treated him with respect.
"The Afrikaners respected me. I don't know how it happened that the
Afrikaners respect me so much."
He said at the kwaKhethomthandayo palace there were still medals which the
apartheid government had awarded to his kingdom.
Xenophobia
The king also touched on the South African Human Rights Commission which
released its preliminary report last week on his alleged involvement in
xenophobic attacks early this year.
The commission had recommended that he make a public apology or risk being
taken to the Equality Court.
Early this year it was reported that the king called on foreigners to pack
up and go back to their home countries.
He said he would address the Zulu nation in January on the outcomes of the
report, which he said were an insult to the nation.
The king's traditional prime minister, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, told
The Mercury that the report had exonerated the king, but he said the
commission should explain why it had called on the king to issue a public
apology.
"I am pleased that they exonerated him, but I am confused that they still
insist that he must apologise. There seems to be a contradiction."
Political analyst Protas Madlala said the king was playing on the theory
that white people could govern better.
"He is right, but he should explain deeper the reason behind their
success,"said Madlala.
Apartheid had been supported internationally, he said.
The king and the KZN ANC
Zwelithini's praise for the apartheid government came a few weeks after the
newly elected ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal paid homage to the king in an
effort to mend fences.
The Mercury understands that freshly elected KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairman
Sihle Zikalala led a delegation to meet the king, who was unhappy with the
disbanding of the Royal Household Department "without consultation".
This had ruined the relationship between Zwelithini and Premier Senzo
Mchunu.
Even worse, in the eyes of the king, was that when the department was
replaced with the Royal Household Trust, some of the king's employees were
retrenched and others were absorbed by the premier's office or the trust.
A royal house insider said this had led to great bitterness among royal
household members, and saw the king taking a critical stance against the
provincial government at public gatherings.
However, when approached for comment last week, the king's adviser, Judge
Jerome Ngwenya, denied that the relationship between Mchunu and the king was
on the rocks .
ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma said the provincial executive committee
had met the king a week after the provincial conference that had elected
Zikalala to replace Mchunu. He declined to elaborate on what was discussed.
The declining relationship between Mchunu and the king was revealed at the
commemoration of King Shaka Day in KwaDukuza in September, which Mchunu
attended as one of the speakers.
King lashes out
The king lashed out at government officials for displaying government flags
at a traditional ceremony. Some of the flags had Mchunu's face on them. He
also demanded that the government cease organising royal events.
In June the king disapproved of Mchunu's appointment of former IFP Youth
Brigade president Thulasizwe Buthelezi as the chairman of the Royal
Household Trust Board. Mchunu was forced to replace Buthelezi with Professor
Sihawu Ngubane, the head of African languages at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal.
Mchunu's spokesman, Sibusiso Magwaza, said assuming that Mchunu was not on
good terms with the king was "innuendo", and that the relationship between
the two "is neither here nor there".
"If that relationship is not very good or cordial, then we don't know what
type of a relationship we are talking about," he said.
King's controversial comments
January 2012: The king is quoted in the media as reportedly saying that
'traditionally, there were no people who engaged in same-sex relationships'
and that people who did so were "rotten".
The reports were strongly denied by the king's spokesman who blamed the
media for "reckless translation".
July 2014: The king says he will launch a land claim for all the land in KZN
and in other provinces that was in Zulu hands in 1838. When criticised, he
said: "This land was not taken from the trusts, which are now popular in the
country, but was taken from traditional leaders, and your fathers and
mothers who were murdered."
March 2015: The king made a speech in Pongola where he said: "We request
that all foreigners should take their baggage and be sent back." An upsurge
of xenophobic violence in KwaZulu-Natal followed which some attributed to
the speech. The SA Human Rights Commission has ruled that the speech did not
incite violence but was 'hurtful and harmful' to foreigners and recommended
that the king make a public apology.
April 2015: During the xenophobic violence, Home Affairs Minister Malusi
Gigaba called for leaders not to make inflammatory comments. In response,
the king said political leaders, in an apparent reference to Gigaba, should
not get carried away with their five years in political power and think they
were "demigods".
From:
http://beta.iol.co.za/news/politics/king-praises-apartheid-regime-1956136
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