Wonder Hlongwa
A former mayor of Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal has been made to pay King Goodwill Zwelithini a fine of 25 cattle to apologise for referring to him as “a certain man”. Derrick Sutherland, a Pongola businessman, delivered the cattle to the king’s Khangela palace in Nongoma this week to apologise for “not respecting the king”.
It started when Sutherland was testifying before a commission of inquiry set up by then provincial local government and housing MEC Peter Miller (now MEC for Local Government and Finance) to investigate, among other things, the reasons behind Pongola’s Transitional Local Council freely giving land to the king.
He referred to a councillor who had negotiated with the king as “naughty because he gave land to a certain man for free”, according to the king’s induna, WiIliam Mbuli.
People who attended the hearing, most of them Zulus and Inkatha Freedom Party supporters, asked Sutherland to apologise, which he allegedly refused to do. It was only after local people started blocking roads to his businesses – especially his Caltex filling station – that he agreed to meet those demanding an apology.
Pongola mayor Bheki-themba Mncwango said the land had been given to the king because he was going to donate it to Portuguese businesspeople who wanted to invest in the area by building industries there.
Numerous attempts to speak to Sutherland were unsuccessful.
He is alleged to have asked Mbuli not to publicise the issue because it was going to affect his image.