Traditional chiefs may abstain from voting in next year’s elections, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi
KwaZulu-Natal chiefs who voted for the African National Congress in the last election are signalling they are likely to abstain from party political activity in next year’s election.
At the heart of their dissension is unhappiness with the recognition and remuneration they receive as traditional leaders and their exclusion from peace talks between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party.
The ANC has identified the province’s rural communities as its best bet for wresting power from the IFP next year. It already has an established power base in urban centres that it won during the local government elections in 1996.
The peace talks have offered the ANC access to areas which were “no-go” to it in 1994. But, ironically, they are also the party’s biggest stumbling block – chiefs say they now feel alienated from decision-making structures in the ANC as a result of the talks.
Chiefs also complain the ANC has failed to use its national muscle to bypass the province’s Department of Safety and Security and take measures against elements in the security forces they claim are harassing them.
Some have reported raids on their homesteads on the pretext that they store illegal firearms. Six weeks ago a large contingent of security force personnel raided homes in the Mnqobokazi area near Hluhluwe.
Supporters of Chief Bhekuyise Ngwane, of the Mnqobokazi tribe, claim security force personnel held a knife to his wife’s throat and breast, allegedly to force her to reveal her husband’s whereabouts. A charge has been laid at the local police station by the chief.
“There appears to be a high degree of support for the ANC in this area, and residents allege the aim of the operation was to disarm them and facilitate an attack, an all-to- familiar pattern in this province,” said peace monitor Mary de Haas in a protest letter to the police and army days after the raid.
Says a chief who refused to disclose his name: “It is not that we are opposed to peace talks per se. In any event we have suffered most because of the violence. Our concern is that all those sacrifices and loyalty to the ANC seem to have taken a back seat on the party agenda.”
Interestingly, unlike in the Eastern Cape, none of the KwaZulu- Natal chiefs express any interest in General Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement.
The ANC dissenters are also not considering changing allegiance to the IFP. They would rather remain non- aligned during next year’s election. But they openly express disquiet about the systematic erosion of their role and influence in politics.
They see their expectations of the ANC being ignored in favour of a reconciliatory agenda that is championed by the party’s highest office, and argue that while they have suffered harshly for refusing to toe the IFP line in the past, the party they hoped could bring an end to their nightmare is now leaving them out in the cold.
A common example given is Chief Zibuse Mlaba of Camperdown in the Midlands, who was allegedly sidelined from the ANC’s top structures in the province for insisting too much on the recognition of his role as traditional leader. In the past, Mlaba featured prominently in ANC meetings on issues pertaining to traditional leaders in KwaZulu- Natal. But then he was no longer seen at public meetings with senior ANC leaders, a move interpreted by some as a strategy to isolate him.
Until his jolt back into prominence during the ANC provincial conference in July, Mlaba was labelled in some sections of the party as being a “misdirected militant”.
Chief Tshanibezwe Hlongwane, of Bergville in the Midlands, says the ANC failed to live up to promises allegedly made in public to him and his tribe prior to the 1994 elections.
Hlongwane has threatened to advise his tribe not to vote next year unless the ANC helps to reinstate him as chief of AmaNgwane.
He says he was deposed by Ulundi in 1982 after he stood up against its administration, which intended to forcefully remove his subjects from parts of Bergville for the construction of a dam. He says this cost him his throne in favour of his half-brother, MaSwazi Hlongwane, who is aligned to the IFP, and forced him into almost 12 years of exile away from his family in the KwaNgwanase area.
He estimates his tribe at 350 000, a significant constituency the ANC risks losing if he carries out his threats.
“How can I be happy when I have been separated from my family for 16 years because I was one of the chiefs who were not aligned to the IFP, and when the new political settlement hits South Africa I am still left in the cold?” asks Hlongwane.
But ANC leaders are expressing confidence they will win a majority of rural votes next year. The task of opening up these areas for the ANC to exploit during the election campaign lies with S’bu Ndebele, the party’s provincial chair and the most likely candidate for the premiership should it win. He is assisted by his deputy, Zweli Mkhize.
In their respective roles as MECs for transport and health, Ndebele and Mkhize have successfully delivered basic services to millions in KwaZulu- Natal’s rural areas.
Ndebele said the provincial election strategy would focus mainly in rural areas, as local government elections and the relative peace that accompanied them have already proved the party’s support in urban centres.
“Measures to deal with poverty in the past have been erratic. But since we developed a clear strategy we are beginning to see the fruits of our approach. Today we’re no longer strangers in those areas. People are beginning to accept us as leaders,” said Ndebele.