Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini on Thursday said the drafting of a constitution for KwaZulu-Natal is intended to ”culminate in the restoration of the monarch to its [sic] rightful position and status”.
Speaking to members of a constitutional ad hoc committee in Durban, Zwelithini said: ”This is a critical process which addresses entrenched institutional, systemic and legal challenges faced by the monarchy, going back into the apartheid and colonial administration.”
The meeting had been called to brief Zwelithini on progress made by the committee, which is currently on its third draft of the constitution.
Committee chairperson Cyril Xaba said only the chapter on the monarch still has to be completed and he again called on the Inkatha Freedom Party to rejoin the process after it walked out last month.
Earlier, Xaba called on the IFP to rejoin the process of drafting a constitution for the province.
”I urge the IFP to rejoin the process. It is critical that they be part of the process for if they are … its credibility will be beyond question,” Xaba said at the meeting.
The IFP walked out of the process last month, saying that senior princes from the Zulu royal household were excluded.
Zwelithini, however, had already made a submission to the committee on behalf of Zulu royal household.
On Thursday, Xaba said no one has been denied the opportunity to make a submission.
He said the princes had approached him after the closure of the public submission and had been given a hearing date, but they failed to arrive.
Xaba said no apology or request for an extension was received.
He later wrote to the princes and said they could make a written submission, which they declined because they wanted to do it in person.
Xaba said the IFP is not out of the picture completely.
”They can still move amendments,” he said.
The committee has received an extension on its original deadline, and the documents will be tabled in the legislature on May 31.
After the extension, Zwelithini called on members to ensure there are no unnecessary delays pertaining to the documents, saying ”the constitution-drafting process occurs at a time when all of us must come out of the past and be part of the future”.
Meanwhile, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has called for an imbizo (gathering) of the Zulu nation at Kwa-Mashu south of Durban on Saturday amid criticism that only the king has the authority to do so.
Although Zwelithini did not refer to the imbizo, the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party in KwaZulu-Natal, Reverend Hawu Mbatha, said the Zulu royal house should not be divided along political lines. — Sapa