Farouk Chothia: Durban
KWAZULU/NATAL chiefs have received an increased stipend since April in what appears to be a move on the Inkatha Freedom Party’s part to retain their loyalty in the post- election era, it emerged this week.
This disclosure comes amid further signs that Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini is battling to prise chiefs — the main conduit between himself and his millions of subjects — away from arch-foe Mangosuthu Buth-elezi.
The senior deputy secretary in the province’s Ministry of Traditional Authority, George Smith, confirmed that the annual stipends of chiefs were increased at the beginning of April as they had been stagnant “for a long time”.
In terms of the new scale, chiefs without matric receive R18 000 a year while those with matric receive R22 800.
Chiefs with a three-year diploma or degree receive a minimum of R37 170 a year.
Smith said a different system of payment had been used previously: chiefs with less than 3 000 subjects received R7 689; those with between 3 000 and 6 000 subjects received R11 530 a year. This applied to non-matriculant chiefs.
Matriculants received R15 747 a year, irrespective of the number of subjects they had. Those who had completed post- matric studies received R15 747 plus R1 725 for each year of study completed, Smith added.
ANC kwaZulu/Natal deputy chairman Chief Zibuse Mlaba said not all chiefs receive the stipend: those who are not aligned to the IFP do not receive payment.
Buthelezi called two meetings of chiefs in the past week, where his status as “traditional prime minister” was confirmed. According to a kwaZulu/Natal government spokes- man, Thembinkosi Memela, 270 chiefs attended the meetings in Ulundi, one last Friday and the other this Tuesday.
Buthelezi’s confidence that he has the backing of chiefs was demonstrated by two moves he initiated: the chiefs first asked for a meeting with Zwelithini; when the monarch refused, they asked for a meeting with President Nelson Mandela, Zwelithini’s new ally. Mandela has reportedly agreed to grant them an audience.
By contrast, Zwelithini’s attempts to assert his authority are failing. He was scheduled to address two rallies in Durban townships last weekend as part of a recently unveiled campaign to promote peace and reconciliation, but he failed to pitch up. The official reason for his non- appearance was poor health.
University of Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas said chiefs will be reluctant to publicly pledge allegiance to Zwelithini for as long as the issue of “patronage, coercion and terror” is not addressed.
Chief OT Xolo was forced to flee the south coast after he allowed free political activity in his fiefdom. There had been an attempt to kill him and moves are afoot to depose him, De Haas added.
Desperate to gain control over the chiefs — “the pillars of the Zulu kingdom” — Prince Sifiso Zulu made a call last weekend, on behalf of Zwelithini, for the salaries of chiefs to paid from the national fiscus.
The Ulundi indaba responded by saying that the call would play into the hands of those “who have in the past sought the destruction of kwaZulu” — a subtle projection of Zwelithini as a sell-out to the ANC and Xhosas.
De Haas said it was unlikely that chiefs would be paid by central government as “traditional authority is a provincial affair” in terms of the constitution.
With Buthelezi steering their actions, the chiefs put even more heat on Zwelithini, deploring his “lack of communication” with them as a development that could see the “institutions of the monarchy suffer grievously” — again a subtle projection of Zwelithini as a king who has gone wayward.
De Haas argued that the king is not as powerful as he was made out to be in the pre-election period. Zwelithini does not have a strong personality and Buthelezi used him to stoke the embers of Zulu nationalism.
Buthelezi has always had a higher profile then Zwelithini. Right up to 1986, for instance, Buthelezi’s portrait appeared alone on pictures promoting the historic Shaka Day celebrations, De Haas argued. Gradually thereafter, Buthelezi began promoting Zwelithini’s public image and this reached a crescendo in the election run-up.
Buthelezi also has more resources then Zwelithini. The IFP leader can rely on the IFP and provincial government’s financial and organisational clout to pull off rallies.
“The king has none of this,” De Haas said.
De Haas believes that to break Buthelezi’s control over chiefs, the ANC will have to be “more vigorous” as an opposition party by challenging IFP “abuse” of chiefs in the provincial legislature.