Inkatha Freedom party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has challenged KwaZulu-Natal premier Sbu Ndebele to ”assert, affirm, recognise and protect” his ”Zuluness”.
”We want our political representatives to have the courage to clearly state that they are Zulus; they represent Zulu interests, and they are part of the Zulu nation,” he said.
His challenge came in a speech prepared for delivery on Saturday at a ”cultural function” at Nsingweni near Eshowe.
Buthelezi, who is also the so-called ”traditional prime minister” of the Zulus, said the ”Zulu nation” had reached a crucial point.
It had to decide whether its descendants would see themselves as Zulus within the greater unity of South Africa, or merely as South Africans, without any awareness of the values that made Zulus today proud inheritors of the legacy of their ancestors.
”I say that it is our responsibility to preserve our Zuluness. I say that we have the responsibility to rise again; to make our voice ring out across the hills and valleys of KwaZulu; to let the rest of South Africa know that we are Zulus, and we will not let our Zuluness be destroyed.”
Buthelezi hit out at the provincial government’s KwaZulu Natal Traditional Leadership and Governance Bill, which he said did not recognise the role of the traditional leaders and ”completely ignores the very notion of a Zulu nation, a Zulu monarchy, and a Zulu kingdom”.
”The Zulu nation must be very concerned about this Bill because it intends to collapse our nation into the broader unity of South Africa,” he said.
”From today’s denial of our Zulu nationhood, tomorrow will follow the denial of our Zuluness. In a few years, it is likely that features of our Zuluness will be denied and they will try to foist upon us a uniform sense of Africanism.” – Sapa