I bring you greetings from the President of our country, Honourable Jacob Zuma. It is indeed an honour for me to be your guest today as we celebrate Heritage month, in that way having an opportunity to reflect on our past, the present and to ponder on the future and on how do we make sure that tomorrow becomes better than yesterday. It is time to reflect on how and where we would want to be and look like as a country in the next 30 or more years.
This is the time to build our institutions of governance, both traditional councils and municipalities, to rebuild the moral fabric amongst our people particularly the youth and to inculcate the sense of responsibility for the progress of the country. We need to remind the young people that the future and destiny of the country is in their hands and that it is them who can make it what they want it to be.
Our country has been through a difficult period under both colonial and apartheid rule for over 300 years up to 1994 when the heretical system of apartheid was finally defeated. All of you know that apartheid was declared a heresy and a heinous crime against the people of South Africa by the United Nations. The policy of apartheid was indeed a transgression against all the declarations by the United Nations on Human and People’s rights as it deprived the indigenous people their fundamental rights to exercise their cultural, religious and language rights and to practice their systems of traditional governance as they go about their lives in the traditions they knew better.
Nkosi Mahalangu,
The government under President JG Zuma has deemed it fit to establish a national department, named the Department of Traditional Affairs, solely to be responsible for the implementation of the group rights enshrined in the Constitution, in Section 31 for the cultural, religious and linguistic communities to enjoy their cultural life without hindrance by the state or any other person, and in Chapter 12, which recognises the right of cultural and traditional communities to constitute their systems of traditional governance, structures of traditional rule and to observe their customary laws which must also be recognised by the courts as being equal in stature and relevance within the national jurisprudence.
The Department of Traditional Affairs has been established to ensure that your ways of worship and performance of religious and cultural rituals are respected, honoured and given the space to flourish within our constitutional democracy. Practices such as the reed dance, youth initiation and circumcision, visit to ancestral graves for ritual purposes and many other religious practices are entrenched in the Constitution, and it is the function of Department of Traditional Affairs to ensure that they are protected, respected and promoted. Meetings with various departments are being held to foster cooperation with them, facilitate access to heritage and sacred sites like those in national parks and private game reserves, and to ensure that indigenous knowledge systems and practices are integrated into the work of government as a whole.
Kgosi Sipho Mahlangu has been appointed by the Minister to lead a task team that seek to work with communities to improve the practice of initiation and circumcisions to ensure that we ultimately eliminate the deaths of initiates that have dented the good image of this cultural and religious practice. Their work will involve collaboration with the Department of Health, the traditional healers and sangomas, the other faiths and a plethora of stakeholders affected by the practice. We wish iKosi Mahlangu’s team well as they embark on this thankless yet so noble work.
We have, as a Department of Traditional Affairs, commenced to work with the religious leaders amongst the traditional communities to ensure that the African Indigenous Churches (AIC’s) in your communities, mostly formed in protest against discrimination within the mainstream European churches of those times, are supported and allowed space to function in the same manner as the so called mainstream churches. The City of Tshwane has already provided leadership as they allocated land to various AICs during March this year. Most cities and municipalities are today working hard to ensure that these congregations move out of makeshift shelters and from under the trees into proper sites on which they can build for themselves proper facilities.
We are working with the recently formed National Interfaith Council of South Africa (NICSA) to ensure that the work on the religious communities as a whole and the African Traditional Religions, the African Indigenous Churches and other faith groups that were previously marginalised are promoted. This work is also done to inculcate the spirit amongst all our people that all faiths are meant to serve the good of humankind, and not to create animosity, strife and war as it is happening in other parts of the world where religion has become the catalyst for conflict and breaking up of nations and communities.
The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights (the CRL Commission), a chapter 9 institution formed to support democracy and monitor the state’s implementation of the Bill of Rights has rightly been on the heels of government (the executive) demanding that proper attention be given to these rights above. We are indeed pleased that the President has heeded their incessant and necessary calls by establishing a dedicated department to attend to this sector.
These are the rights that the United Nations, has through their 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) endorsed as being fundamental and basic for the peoples with diverse cultures and religions to enjoy. This was a sequel to the rights of the Indigenous and Tribal peoples having been pursued over the years through the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s Convention 169 of 1989. Our government, being a pioneer on the protection of the fundamental rights, was indeed in the forefront in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), lobbying for the adoption of UNDRIP as we believe that the rights that we enjoy in our country are universal.
We however know that in spite of the rights being in the constitution, without promotion and active and visible protection, they may remain disrespected and trampled upon, hence the establishment of a dedicated Department of Traditional Affairs to be a storm-trooper for the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities (generally referred to as indigenous and tribal peoples in other jurisdictions).
Ladies and gentlemen,
I want to take this opportunity, once again, to thank ikosi Sipho Mahlangu for having organised this jamboree today to remind us of where we came from in both the recent and distant history. Ikosi Senzangakhona James Mahlangu (Prince James as he was generally known) was indeed a fearless fighter, a combatant for life and a patriot to the end. He led the struggles against Chief Minister Simon Skhosana, the then KwaNdebele Homeland leader’s attempts to deprive the people of this territory the right to be called South Africans. The Skhosana junta wanted desperately to accept the so-called independence of KwaNdebele from South Africa, an apartheid policy that was meant to instantly make the Ndebele national group foreigners in their own country.
The policy was indeed an affront to the United Nations’ various declarations on the right of any peoples, including the indigenous and oppressed peoples, to self-determination and freedom. Apartheid Pretoria sought to rid itself of the reality of being an oppressor regime by finding puppets like the late Skhosana to collaborate with it to further alienate the people from their country of their birth.
Prince James Mahlangu, as he was popularly known during his lifetime, never accepted the apartheid and its ugly schemes. He immediately associated himself with the United Democratic Front, and as a traditional leader, he emulated his forebears like King Nyabela Ndzundza Mahlangu who fought gallantly, in alliance with King Mampuru of the Bapedi-Mamone, against the Boer General Piet Joubert, between the years 1880 – 1883.
They were unfortunately both captured and sentenced. Kgosi Mampuru was hanged whilst Kgosi Nyabela was given a life sentence. IKosiNyabela was made to watch the hanging of Mampuru, his erstwhile friend and comrade in arms as part of his further humiliation and punishment.
It was after the resistance wars of the 1880’s that the Boers thought that the Ndebele people, including other tribes like Sekhukhune and Makhado, are finally defeated and would succumb to the apartheid colonial whims. Most of the people of these conquered areas and territories were removed from their fertile lands and were forced to work and live on the new farms “owned” by the white farmers as slaves and tenants respectively. This was part of the regime’s attempt to kill the pride and self-worth of the Ndebele people. Unfortunately for the regime, the African National Congress (ANC) was formed 27 years later to pursue the same struggle that Nyabela had fought in.
Prince James Mahlangu, an underground operative of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the glorious armed wing of the ANC rightfully occupied his position in the trenches as both a iKosi and an inspirational leader of his people against apartheid. It was during Prince James’ time that the idea to form the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA) was mooted and it finally was launched right here in KwaNdebele in 1989. He indeed became part of the founding leadership.
It is sad and unfortunate that ill-health and death deprived us of the further contribution and wisdom of Prince James (at his prime age) as the country would still have benefitted immensely from his intellect, resolve and clarity of purpose. We are however pleased that through his son, IKosi Sipho Mahlangu, the new Department of Traditional Affairs continues to cultivate the legacy of Prince James Mahlangu selflessness and patriotism.
Ikosi Sipho Mahlangu, I want to take this opportunity to thank the people under your leadership here in Ndzundza Mabusa and the entire Nzundza Kingdom under Ingwenyama Mabhoko III for releasing you to government and selflessly allowing you to serve the people of South Africa in your very many capacities. You have demonstrated willingness to engage South Africa anywhere, be it in Parliament, the Mpumalanga Legislature, the Houses of Traditional Leaders at various levels – your footprints are very visible as you assist in the restoration of the institution of traditional and indigenous leadership.
We are indeed grateful for your continued support and guidance, and we hope that you will keep being energised as the transition from apartheid oppression to a full democracy is indeed a hard slog – there is still an odyssey we still have to traverse as we walk together, as South Africans, to the promised land of Luthuli and Mandela.
As I conclude, I wish to assure South Africans that the ANC government remains committed to land reform and to reversing the ugly legacy bequeathed to us by the many years of apartheid colonialism. We are progressively making sure that all South Africans enjoy the fruits of the struggles that have brought us democracy in our lifetime. I call on all of you not to lose heart but to continue to support the ANC and work together with your government at all levels to make a better life for ourselves where we live.
I thank you all and wish the Ndzundza traditional community good rains and prosperity!
Lotshani!
