OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday
CONFLICT is looming between government and South Africa’s traditional leaders (amakhosi) over proposed changes to the law governing local authorities, which the leaders have rejected as “annoying and insulting”.
Saying the law seeks to reduce their powers, Nkosi Mpiyezintombi Mzimela, chair of the Coalition of Traditional Leaders, said the amakhosi would submit new proposals to President Mbeki after studying the Local Government Municipal Structures Amendment Bill.
Stung by the rejection, government has assured the leaders that the bill, tabled last week, was not the final word on the subject.
Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said the bill would be an interim arrangement for the December 5 local election.
He told reporters here that the bill formed phase one of a consultative process to define the legislative role of traditional leadership in local government affairs.
But apparently Mufamadi’s comments could not avoid conflict between the chiefs and the government.
The amakhosi, Mzimela said, rejected the bill because the government had refused to grant traditional leaders powers of local government.
“As long as the issue of traditional leaders is in the hands of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, we will have no solution,” Mzimela said.
“The bill is silent on the powers of the amakhosi. We are expected to be agents of municipal councils. We don’t want to be subjected to municipalities.”
The leaders are to gather in Pretoria to plan the next move in their struggle with the government ahead of the coming municipal elections, which will change the way local municipalities are demarcated and cut across traditional tribal boundaries.
Meanwhile, the Pan Africanist Congress urged the government to clarify the role of traditional leaders.
PAC deputy president Motsoko Pheko said the amakhosi had an important role to play in rural areas.