Legal experts must decide if Saturday’s imbizo (meeting) of the Zulu nation in Durban is traditional or political before police decide whether traditional weapons will be allowed at the gathering.
The event was called by Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
”They’re seeking legal opinion to see if this is traditional or political because it seems as if this is bordering on both,” said KwaZulu-Natal community safety and liaison minister Bheki Cele on Thursday.
Cele said if Zulus are given the go-ahead to bring their traditional weapons, only sticks and shields will be allowed.
”No sharpened sticks, no assegais, no knobkieries,” said Cele.
Meanwhile, police were on Thursday evening still fine-tuning their security plans for Saturday.
Director Bala Naidoo said: ”Quite a lot of arrangements have been made.”
He said apart from the Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu where the imbizo will be held, police will also monitor traffic routes and other areas from where people will be travelling by bus.
Cele also confirmed that security around Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has been improved, especially during transit and around his palaces in KwaNongoma.
”There are still pockets of violence in KwaZulu-Natal, and Nongoma is one of those pockets,” said Cele.
He cited the killing of Prince Thulani Zulu a member of the Zulu royal family and a
branch leader of the African National Congress in Nongoma who died in a drive-by shooting on March 2.
Cele said there were also clashes between ANC and IFP supporters in the area and marches on the day of the funeral of Langa Ntshangase, an IFP local government activist in Nongoma shot dead on November 30.
King ‘distances’ himself from imbizo
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the royal household, Vusi Shongwe, said the king had distanced himself from the imbizo and would not comment.
Buthelezi has been criticised by the ANC in the province, which said only the king has the authority to call an imbizo.
ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu urged people not to attend, saying the IFP is in a deep internal crisis, and because it knows its support is waning, it chose to disguise its rally as an imbizo.
Buthelezi said he called the imbizo in his capacity as traditional prime minister of the Zulu kingdom and as chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders after a number of meetings of amakhosi had requested the meeting.
He said it will enable the Zulu nation ”to give guidance to our kingdom at this crucial juncture in our history, in which the very existence of our kingdom is threatened”.
Meanwhile, the IFP and ANC youth wings are also at loggerheads over Saturday’s imbizo. The ANC Youth League said most political parties that supported the apartheid regime have either died a natural death or become irrelevant.
”For so long, the IFP has always projected itself as a party of the Zulu nation, with the support of the most backward elements of the most backward regime that the world has ever seen before, apartheid.
”The only bastion of the past, which has made the IFP to survive thus far, is its disguise of being the representative of the Zulu kingdom, which has been rejected by the people of KwaZulu-Natal.”
ANC Youth League spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Buthelezi and the IFP have outlived their time and have become irrelevant.
”The old must give birth to the new; old tactics will not survive in the new democratic order. Let the IFP die a natural death.”
IFP Youth Brigade chairperson Thulasizwe Buthelezi responded by saying: ”The IFP will not have its political obituary written by a bunch of over-zealous nincompoops that comprise the ANC Youth League.
”For too long, the opponents of democracy have wished for the IFP and Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi to disappear from our country’s political landscape — but they have failed and will continue to be a stuck record, just like the ANC Youth League.
”By using recycled propaganda that the IFP was part of the apartheid regime, the ANC Youth League has once again displayed that it has become politically obsolete.” — Sapa