Final salute

Final salute to His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini ka Cyprian Bhekuzulu

JACOB ZUMA

THE king among kings has departed. His light shall forever shine on the path to develop constitution-based democracy on the roots of indigenous knowledge and culture.

Our country woke up to the news of the passing on of His Majesty, King Zwelithini ka Nyangayezizwe Cyprian ka Nkayishana Solomon ka Dinuzulu ka Cetswayo ka Mpande. The bowing out of iSilo Samabandla was announced by the Royal Family on 12 March 2021, leaving the multitudes of his subjects and all that had come to love and respect the king, in great sadness.

His Majesty King Zwelithini ascended the throne at the young age of 23 in 1971 at a time when the people of our country resumed the project of open defiance of the colonial apartheid system. Almost a century had passed since the victory of the Zulu Royal Army over the British colonial forces at the Battle of Isandlwane on 22 January 1879. The Zulu Kingdom had to face the severest test in the wake of defeat by the British at the Battle of Ulundi on 4 July 1879. His Majesties King Cetshwayo and successor Dinuzulu suffered the wrath of British imperialism.

South Africa was a different country after the British-sponsored Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910 was established. Black people came to be governed under institutions in which they had no direct representation. The indigenous people responded by establishing the South African National Native Congress (SANNC) uniting all Africans in South Africa and the then so-called British Protectorates of Basutoland (Lesotho), Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Swaziland. The kings of the various nations in the region were actively involved and represented in the founding of the Congress on 8 January 1912, in Mangaung. They rallied behind the call for unity across language and ethnicity.

The apartheid regime recognised His Majesty King Cyprian Bhekuzulu as the Paramount Chief of the Zulu people in 1951. This was the first time the imperialists acknowledged the king of the Zulu people since 1879. The move was a cynical pursuit of the old imperialist strategy of divide and rule, in its new form of so-called separate development, dividing the indigenous people on the basis of language and ethnicity. The indigenous people led by the African National Congress, as the SANCC had been renamed in 1923, resisted this policy at every turn.

The reign of His Majesty the King came at the height of racist attempts to balkanise our country along racial and ethnic lines. On the other side the broad national liberation movement led by the ANC had begun the final push to end minority racist rule. The people became divided between those who were resisting apartheid in all its forms, on one side, and on the other, those who still believed they could fight the racist system from within.

History thus thrust the responsibility upon the shoulders of His Majesty to work with other leaders to promote peace among his subjects while championing the liberation of the people of South Africa. The unifying role and presence of His Majesty became ever more critical in the dying days of apartheid rule; and the early period of the now free and democratic Republic as revolutionary violence confronted state violence.

His Majesty could bridge the rift between his uncle Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who, in his role as the leader of the Inkatha YeNkululeko Yesizwe, was then pitted against the Congressoriented United Democratic Front (UDF) and other formations of the liberation movement. A conducive climate was created in which the leadership of the ANC headed by Isithwalande Nelson Mandela and Inkatha President Prince M G Buthelezi could find common ground in the long and difficult journey to peace in Natal and the Vaal Triangle. Further loss of lives and destruction of property could be ended.

Prince Buthelezi was a member of the ANC before it was banned in 1960. The ANC effectively deployed him to enter the so-called Bantu tribal authorities and collapse the system from within. The role always had a hidden contradiction. On the one hand it could promote united resistance against apartheid among the traditional communities in Natal. On the other hand it could solidify ethnic separation and exclusivity. This contradiction became a factor in the tragic manipulation of the liberation struggle in Natal and the Vaal Triangle, first into narrow Zulu nationalism, and second into so-called black-on-black violence. His Majesty had an important calming effect among his subjects and between them and other nationalities across the political divide.

He continued to play his role as unifier and peace-builder in the context of the free and democratic South Africa where the priority is socio-economic transformation and development. He joined hands with the provincial government and supported its programmes. He played an excellent role as custodian of indigenous culture and customs nationally and beyond our borders. He has played the roles of statesman and international diplomat.

We dedicate ourselves to honour his memory by sparing no effort to realise the total emancipation of all the people and building peace and prosperity in South Africa, Africa, and beyond. Indeed as South Africans we should look through petty political differences and one-upmanship; to win the prize of real national self-determination and national sovereignty.

Lala ngoxolo Hlanga Lomhlabathi!

* Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Mhlanganyelwa Zuma is a former president of the Republic of South Africa

Rest in Peace Lala ngoxolo

KING GOODWILL ZWELITHINI KA BHEKUZULU 14 JULY 1948 – 12 MARCH 2021

INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCE

“ His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu, the King of the Zulu Nation, led his people with dignity, wisdom and compassion.

He was the longest serving monarch of the Zulu nation, having reigned for almost fifty years. He led his people through the dark era of apartheid and, after we achieved democracy, remained a champion of the ongoing struggle for full liberation from the bonds of social and economic injustice.

His Majesty led by example as he called on the nation to return to subsistence farming, to produce food and invest in agriculture. He emphasised the importance of cultural values and preserved the traditions of the Zulu Nation. Under his leadership, every family in the Zulu Kingdom enjoyed the security of being able to access enough land on which to live and raise a family.

These accolades and many more speak of a national leader who served South Africa with distinction. May our country and the nation be comforted in the knowledge that His Majesty’s legacy will continue.

The IFP extends its support to the Regent, Her Majesty Queen Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu. Our prayers are with Her Majesty, and the Royal Family."

*** Hon. Velenkosini Hlabisa, MPL Inkatha Freedom Party President & Leader of the Official Opposition in the KZN Legislature

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