KZN Amakhosi to help prevent political instability as election fever grows; to now participate in municipal structures; to play role in providing food to 3 million poverty-stricken people.
KwaZulu-Natal premier’s call on traditional leaders to play a stronger role in maintaining peace and stability in the run-up to next year’s general election (and beyond) would go a long way to ensuring that the province of KwaZulu-Natal got a free and fair poll.
This has been said by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, the Honourable Mrs Nomusa Dube-Ncube, as she welcomes the premier’s call made at a special meeting of the premier, MEC and the province’s Amakhosi today.
The Premier, the Honourable Mr Senzo Mchunu, was interfacing with traditional leaders for the first time since his ascension to the premiership. He used the meeting to reassure Amakhosi of the significance of their role in all sectors of society, and recommitted the provincial government to ensuring that traditional leaders are brought in to play an active role in the creation of a better KwaZulu-Natal in general.
Meanwhile, the Chair of the Provincial House of Traditional Leadership, Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza, promised the premier and the MEC that all Amakhosi were committed to heeding the call made by the premier towards creating a peaceful KZN.
“KwaZulu-Natal is a very stable province today unlike in the past when it was characterized by political strife. Let us work with you as Amakhosi to ensure that we never return to the ugly dark days of political instability. Rather, let us be known as a province whose communities are living free of poverty, hunger and disease,” said Mchunu.
“Today we are proud to say KwaZulu-Natal is a stable province, notwithstanding those isolated incidents here and there. Nongoma, for instance, recently experienced a peaceful by-election whereby different political party supporters and leaders were seen shaking hands with each other on an election day, whereas in the past, it was a known political hot-spot.
As leaders in your communities, we call upon you to work with us as government and the different political parties to ensure that this kind of stability is maintain, especially as we move closer to the election,” he addressed Amakhosi.
He called on the traditional leaders to come up with initiatives focused in their local traditional authorities, which would address, among other challenges, poverty and HIV/Aids and enhance social cohesion.
“KwaZulu-Natal is remarkably much better today than in the past years of apartheid, in terms of poverty, service delivery and under-development. Nevertheless, out of the 10.2 million people of KwaZulu-Natal, some 3 million are still faced with poverty.
Our challenge as government together with you (Amakhosi) is to focus on eliminating the hunger that is facing these 3 million people,” added the premier, adding that although the issue of HIV/Aids remained a challenge, great inroads had, however, been achieved in the fight against the scourge.
He said it will have been an anomaly to not involve Amakhosi in development, citing that traditional leaders such as the founding Zulu King, King Shaka, the likes of Bhambatha kaManciza Zondi of the famous Bhambatha rebellion, King Cetshwayo, who led the world renowned 1879 battle of isandlwana, King Dinuzulu and Inkosi Albert Luthuli, were among the trailblazers in the struggle for equality.
Hence, he said, today’s democratic dispensation had adopted a constitution that is clear about the role of Amakhosi in governance. In welcoming the premeir’s message, MEC Dube-Ncube reassured that Amakhosi would be actively involved as municipalities are in the processes of implementing the National Development Plan, which is the developmental roadmap towards the Vision 2030 of eliminating joblessness and poverty towards creating an equal society.
“We are pleased that the premier has emphasized the importance of getting Amakhosi to play a key role around these key issues, namely creating lasting peace and stability, fighting poverty and HIV/Aids. His pronouncements reassure us as the line function department that we have province-wide support as we up the gear in getting Amakhosi actively involved in governance matters,” said Dube-Ncube.
As examples of increased empowerment being afforded for Amakhosi, MEC Dube-Ncube cited the UKZN university study programme for Amakhosi, the involvement of Amakhosi in municipal council structures in terms of Section 81 of the Municipal Structures Act, the provision of tools of trade for Amakhosi, such as laptops with internet connection, stipends, travel allowances, vehicles for the chair and the deputy chair of the House of Traditional Leaders, among other benefits, which were not made available under the past regime.
She also announced that the provincial government would fast-track its programme of working with Amakhosi to ensure that they played a leadership role at governance structures at community level.
