Another ”king” and another claim for state assistance.
The king of the Griqua nation, Adam Kok V, only requires five houses for tourism, another five for his servants, a palace, a helicopter, a landing strip, one charter plane, 100 cattle, 200 sheep, 100 goats and poultry, and road tarring ”of at least 100km before or near” the king’s palace in Campbell, Northern Cape.
The appeal is contained in a letter sent by the African Renaissance Civic Movement (Armco) to President Thabo Mbeki.
From Flat E13, Reiger Park in Boksburg, Richard Huber writes on behalf of Armco’s ”national executive committee” that Kok has to be granted rights and allowances in parity with the Zulu monarch.
”We are astonished when comparing the over-expenditure patterns of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s luxurious lifestyle paid for by — taxpayers,” reads Armco’s statement.
According to Dan Fletcher, also of Armco, Adam Kok V, who is a primary school teacher and a bee farmer, lives in ”abject squalor” in a hut in Campbell in the Northern Cape. Married with one child, Kok had no access to transport until Armco members pooled resources to acquire a bakkie for him.
”We are trying to determine whether there is traditional leadership within the Khoisan community like you would have in African communities — whether there are the long lines of succession,” says Wellington Sobahle, an academic who is drafting policy on leadership for the department of traditional affairs.
”The Kok family has a long history of unbroken succession but they have — broken up into many families with intermarriage,” says Sobahle. ”The onus is on the living family to prove that they are recognised as the leaders.”
The government insists that the ”royal family” validate Kok’s status.