Paul Kirk
A week after Zulu chiefs met President Thabo Mbeki to ask for the proposed new changes in municipal demarcations to be put on hold, the King of the Pondos, Justice Mpondombini Sigcau, has called for “no changes” in the municipal demarcations in his area.
Pondoland has seen exceptionally bloody faction fighting, and the Mail & Guardian recently revealed that the police were squarely blaming this on the proposed changes to municipal demarcations.
Asking how democracy died, Sigcau said: “The whites told us what is to be done. Now we are facing the same old bogey again. Now a government department is telling us what is to be done. Pondos are very sensitive about local loyalties; who belongs where and with whom. Now you want to carve us up in the same way as the slave states came into being? I think they call it Balkanisation. Do I have to tell you that part of the world has never known true peace?”
The king said he feared that fighting in traditional areas could spread like wildfire if rural migrant workers started to settle in scores in the cities.
“I have a heavy foreboding that this demarcation thing is going to resuscitate the old evil of faction fighting. Who knows how far that could spread? Sugar cane plantations, shanty towns and mines could all be affected. Please leave us alone and remember that if this unrest becomes a countrywide thing South Africa is in deep, deep trouble.”
Apart from possible widespread faction fighting, Sigcau also warned that criminals would flourish in the confusion. “The crooks will have a field day. The police at present know where and who the bad boys are. Demarcation will change all of that. The control of crime is a finely balanced affair; demarcation will throw it all into confusion. How can police be expected to cope?”
Adding that changes to municipal demarcations will also result in a loss of dignity for his people, Sigcau said: “My people have suffered long and grievously, first at the hands of the English, then the Nats, then the Matanzimas. Surely that is enough? All we are asking for is to be proud Pondos, proud black men and proud South Africans.”