A recent imbizo (meeting) to discuss the future of the Zulu nation had been unnecessary, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.
”I am a Zulu. You didn’t see me at the imbizo,” Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corporation at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
”This government has since 1994 not only recognised but promoted traditional institutions.
”For the first time since 1910, this government established a National House of Traditional Leaders and it has never happened before in the history of this country — provincial houses of traditional leaders.”
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi — as traditional Zulu prime minister — called a imbizo of clans and members of the royal house to discuss what he said were matters of crucial importance to the future of the Zulu nation.
According to a document leaked to the media, these encompassed the government’s failure to recognise the Zulu kingdom, and the king’s alleged failure to put the unity of his people before his own self-interest.
The African National Congress called on Zulus to boycott the gathering and suggested that it was just an IFP meeting.
The gathering was snubbed by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, but was attended by around 7 000 people.
”We might have reached the end of the road,” Buthelezi said at the gathering.
”The status of our kingdom is a matter of enormous concern for anyone who thinks of himself or herself as a Zulu,” he said.
Last month the IFP indefinitely withdrew from the KwaZulu-Natal ad hoc constitutional affairs committee, citing the exclusion of an important section of the royal family.
The leader of the IFP contingent, Lionel Mtshali, said a group of Zulu princes who wanted to make a submission were only given 72 hours to prepare themselves.
He said the input of the princes was of primary importance to the Zulu nation and the IFP would not ”be traitors to the calls of our people”.
Over the past few months, there have been several apparently political murders in KwaZulu-Natal. University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Dr Alex Amtaikaa said the killings had been incited by the middle-ranking leadership of KwaZulu-Natal’s two major parties, the IFP and the ANC. – Sapa