WHY THIS MATTERS: President Jacob Zuma has accepted a recommendation by a traditional leadership commission that SA lose six kingships. The benefits of this are important as they will be realised over the longer term. Two years ago, the salaries of South Africa’s royal families and senior traditional leaders were costing the taxpayer at least R140 million a year.

This article is from The Business Day

President Jacob Zuma has accepted a recommendation by a traditional leadership commission that SA lose six kingships created by the apartheid government.

Announcing the findings of the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims at a media briefing in Pretoria yesterday, Mr Zuma said it was essential that the creation of the six posts of king and queen be reversed to “correct the wrongs of the past”.

The commission, established by then president Thabo Mbeki in 2004 to resolve disputes on “paramountcies and chieftaincy”, concluded that SA had only seven legitimate kingships and recommended that the others lose their status upon the death of the incumbents.

Zuma admitted that it would be painful and urged traditional leaders and communities to embark on a path of “acceptance, healing and reconciliation”. “The apartheid regime created its own traditional leadership at the expense of authentic leadership in some communities. It was how those in charge divided and disunited people. All we are doing is correcting the wrongs of the past,” Mr Zuma said.

The seven kings recognised are of the AbaThembu, the AmaXhosa and the AmaMpondo in the Eastern Cape, the AmaZulu in KwaZulu- Natal, the BaPedi ba Maroteng and the VhaVenda in Limpopo, and the AmaNdebele in Mpumalanga.

Those that will no longer be recognised are the Batlokwa ba Mota and the Bakwena baMopeli in the Free State, the AmaRharbabe, the Amampondo ase-Nyandeni and the AbaThembu base-Rhode in the Eastern Cape, and the Ndundza Mabhoko in Mpumalanga.

“We urge all communities to accept the findings in the spirit of correcting the wrongs of the past as part of the country’s nation-building efforts,” Mr Zuma said. The measures would let the state restore dignity to traditional leadership.

The commission is expected to conclude the process by submitting its findings and recommendations on the next layer of traditional leadership — the principal traditional leadership, senior traditional leadership and headmanship.

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