It’s not often, in the patrilineal Zulu hierarchy, that the succession of chieftainship goes to a woman. But the Mpungose royal family now has its first female inkosi, who has brought new energy to the position.
Lily Mpungose has tackled her demanding and sometimes frustrating job with determination and empathy, despite her initial reservations that she did not know enough to do justice to the position.
“When my husband, the inkosi Sipho Mpungose, died in 1995 our son was only four years old,” she says. “There were some members of the family who thought that the chieftainship should go to a brother or cousin. There was quite a lot of dispute as to who that person should be. But there were some other people who thought that I should have the job because I would not work against the interests of my own son, who will take over the chieftainship when he is old enough.”
This dispute threatened to fracture the Mpungose community, so at the end of 1998 the MEC for Traditional Affairs, inkosi Inyanga Ngubane, stepped in and approved the appointment of 34-year-old Lily Mpungose, until her son is of age to assume the chieftainship. She was inaugurated in March this year.
“At that stage I knew nothing,” she says. “I had not even thought about what I would do. I was completely unprepared.
“But I was fortunate in that I had been working for the justice department and that was a good training for the job. I have learnt a lot. Also I like people, I get on very well with people. I think this has helped me a lot — I can relate to people across the whole spectrum.”
Mpungose’s background is fortuitous. Straight out of school she started working in the registry office of the Department of Justice in the Eshowe Magistrate’s Court. She then became a maintenance officer. She believes this job was an ideal training ground for mediation and conflict resolution. It also gave her insight into problems faced by women and their families.
“I would like to use my position to uplift women in the community,” she says. “This is a long process and a slow one, but we are busy with workshops and groups to empower women.
“The lowly status of women is not part of the Zulu culture — in our traditional culture women are highly respected. The current low status of women is more of a modern thing.”
Mpungose spends two days of her week mediating on civil cases: disputes and complaints. Members of the public line up on the benches outside her office, waiting to see her with allegations of domestic abuse, disputes over land and property.
“There has to be lots of consultation and discussion,” she says. “Sometimes these disputes can become quite emotional and part of the job is to keep things calm.
“I spend a lot of time enlightening people as to their rights. I must also make sure that people see the reasons why I make my decisions. I think the reason why I can deal with people so successfully is because I don’t get emotional about anything.”
A further two days of the week are spent with development issues. “I go to meetings with the different development committees, go on site visits, meet with councillors. We are busy with projects like water supply, market gardens, self-help schemes.” Every Friday Mpungose catches up with her paperwork.
“This has been very challenging,” she says. “It has opened my mind to the possibilities of development.
“The rural areas have been badly neglected in terms of development; my vision is to try to make the rural areas just as good as far as services are concerned. It is only a matter of time.”
Time is something that Mpungose has plenty of. Her son will only be of an age to assume the chieftainship in about 12 years. Even with the slow pace of bureaucracy she is confident that she will have something to show for her tenure.
“I am working with the Department of Health to put up two more clinics. I want the education department to upgrade the facilities in the schools — especially in the area of technology.
“At the moment I am trying to get funding for a computer centre.”
When asked if she has encountered any particular problems being a female in a male-dominated role, she gives the question some thought. “No, I don’t think so,” she says. “The post of inkosi is bigger than the person that is in it. Maybe the women of my community feel they can bring me their problems because I will be more sympathetic. I would like to believe that I will be completely fair.”