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Zulu
King Goodwill Zwelithini delivers a speech during a traditional gathering
called Imbizo at the Moses Mabhida Football Stadium in Durban on April 20, 2015
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Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini in a speech
last month said immigrants were responsible for rising crime and demanded that
they leave the country -- an outburst followed by a spate of attacks on
migrants from other African countries that left seven dead and thousands
displaced. Many point fingers of accusation at his speech for precipitating the
violence, but President Zuma is treading a fine line dealing with his monarch
as well as his own son Edward Zuma who has also made similar incendiary
utterances.
AFP reports:
In
his royal leopardskin regalia, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini conjures up
Hollywood images of his once-feared tribe and the legendary warrior-king Shaka,
his direct ancestor.
Zwelithini
has no official power in modern South Africa, but he still commands loyalty
among some 10 million Zulu people, and critics who blame him for an outbreak of
xenophobic violence say that his words can kill.
Under
intense pressure from the government and civil society to calm the situation,
the king on Monday, April 20 denied whipping up hatred -- saying he had been
misinterpreted -- and condemned the violence as "shameful".
Zwelithini,
66, is the most prominent among some 10 kings who play a largely symbolic role
in the democratic republic established in 1994 under Nelson Mandela -- who was
himself born into the Thembu royal family.
They
are recognized in the constitution as traditional leaders and supported in
relative luxury by the government -- with Zwelithini last year being allocated
more than R50 million (US$4.1 million), according to local media.
While
some taxpayers might resent the cost, support for Zwelithini is firmly
entrenched among his rural subjects and his role is seen -- somewhat ironically
given the outbreak of xenophobia -- as essential to peace.
- Kept onside -
In
the run-up to South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994 Zwelithini's
province, KwaZulu Natal, was wracked by violence between supporters of the Zulu
nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party and Mandela's African National Congress.
"This
made the new government particularly concerned not to antagonize the king and
his supporters for fear of triggering more violence," says Steven
Friedman, director of the centre for the study of democracy at the University
of Johannesburg.
"The
perks which he receives could therefore be viewed as an attempt to prevent that
violence. If keeping the king in relative luxury is the price which must be
paid for saving lives, it is worth paying."
University
of South Africa analyst Somadoda Fikeni agrees.
"Remember
that when some of these areas were conquered by colonial government people
never stopped recognizing their kings and their chiefs as their authority. These
institutions do not depend on government recognition alone and therefore a
government which wants to assume a greater effective control and have peace has
to work with them."
Fikeni
points to efforts in other African countries, such as Mozambique, where
incoming socialist governments tried to scrap traditional leaders only to be
forced later to reinstate them.
But
independent KwaZulu Natal-based analyst Protas Madlala dismisses tribal
classifications.
"The
architects of (apartheid) oppression skillfully disintegrated all of us, saying
'you are Zulu, you are Xhosa'.
"Some
of us are trying to resist that, to say 'look we are a common nation, we are
all South Africans'."
- Warrior gear -
President
Jacob Zuma is himself a Zulu and regularly swaps suits for full warrior gear,
engaging in tribal dances during traditional ceremonies in his village.
He
and the king also follow other traditional practices, such as polygamy -- each
has married six times and has more than 20 children.
While
there are again mutterings about the cost of supporting so many spouses of the
powerful, Madlala points out that South Africa gets away easily compared to the
impoverished taxpayers in neighbouring Swaziland.
There
King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, has an annual household budget
of around US$60 million in a country where about 60 percent of the population
live on less than US$1 a day.
His
government is regularly accused of stifling dissent and jailing opponents --
whereas the constitutional recognition granted to South Africa's kings is
subject to their adherence to the country's human rights laws.
Zwelithini, a descendent of
the all-powerful Shaka -- who ruled the Zulu nation until his assassination in
1828 -- appears to have recognized that by distancing himself from the violence
meted out to foreigners.
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