BUTHELEZI: "LISTEN TO INKOSI HOLOMISA BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

The statement issued by Inkosi Patekile Holomisa MP, which is attached below, opens an important debate which is long overdue and can no longer be ignored.

His anger is my own. His frustration is my own. The issue of Traditional Leadership which he has raised affects the very dignity, legitimacy and credibility of our Republic. Traditional Leaders have been duped and fobbed off for twenty years and are now becoming the subject of an overt campaign of insults. All this must stop. Policies must change. All the promises made and breached must now be honoured.

Inkosi Holomisa's statement must be given due regard and appreciation and his warning not allowed to be ignored if we are indeed serious about building a legitimate Republic and a truly modern and yet truly African State.

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THE ABUSE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS MUST COME TO AN END

It is high time that the African National Congress, as the ruling party, gives leadership to the nation on the place, status, function and powers of the institution of traditional leadership in the life of the people of South Africa. This urgent call I make not because the people whose interests are affected by the conduct of traditional leaders do not know the role of these leaders. It is occasioned by the fact that a few within the high echelons of civil and political society are busy making seriously distorted allegations which insult not only the traditional leaders but the African traditional communities themselves.

These self-appointed champions of rural women and children's rights, on a regular basis, spew out invectives towards the institution of traditional leadership, accusing it of being an entity which routinely tramples upon the rights of women and children, labelling it as backward, partriarchical, sexist, greedy, anti-democracy, longing for the apartheid past and generally a nuisance that adds no value to the lives of the people it is supposed to lead.

This unwarranted continuous assault on the one remaining truly African institution in post-colonial, post-apartheid South Africa can no longer be tolerated. The ANC is strategically positioned to deal with this long-outstanding national issue once and for all. As a liberation movement it has done all that was necessary to appease the beneficiaries of colonialism and apartheid by entrenching the value-systems and institutions which promote their interests in democratic South Africa. We call on the ANC to come out which clear and specific definitive policy resolutions on the role, place, status, functions and powers of traditional leaders in its forth-coming Policy Conference. Until such a policy position is taken ANC leaders and members cannot pretend to make definitive pronouncements on what traditional leaders should or should not do. I say nothing to the loose and misguided canons who have no political homes to buttress their opinions.

The dignified and stoic silence of the general body of the country's traditional leaders, the direct descendants of the original rulers and defenders of this land, must not be misconstrued as an acceptance of their displacement from the life of the people of their fore-bears. A single traditional leader, it must be understood by our detractors and opponents, amasses numbers of persons that are well above those of the membership of some political organisations. Significantly, the rural women we are supposed to oppress, abuse and dis-empower are the greatest supporters of traditional leaders. This is so because traditional leaders are the pillars of their communities, the people to whom they appeal for support and security, at any time of the day, week, month or year. Our opponents must from now henceforth understand that they are put on notice. They must not make it necessary for traditional leaders to prove their strength in ways which modern formations use when they wish to show their mass appeal. If need be, though, they are quite capable of demonstrating such support and, you can be assured, it will not be a pretty sight to behold when such a demonstration eventuates.

As traditional leaders we do not want to rock the boat by bringing attention to ourselves as an institution. We do not want to distract government from its important historical task of building and developing this new nation. At the same time we can no longer sit idle by when there is continued denigration of what defines us as a people - our cultures, traditions, customs and values - in the name of modernity, constitutionality, democracy and gender rights. These new values should, instead, be used to promote our own original ways.

We have long accepted that culture and traditions are dynamic and amenable to change. In fact, we accept that their strength and relevance depend on their ability to adjust themselves to the changing conditions and circumstances of any given time in the life of a people. It is for this reason and more, therefore, that over the years, in colonial and apartheid times, some of the cultural practices for which we are insulted, have been gradually and systematically discarded or changed. I shall proceed to briefly mention some of those that have been discarded, modified or changed.

We continue to have women traditional leaders leading their traditional communities either in terms of the customs of those specific communities or in their capacity as regents for heirs who may still be incapacitated by age, schooling or other career commitments. Adjustments are made, while such women lead, to ensure that the imperatives of cultural rituals which demand that men play the leading role are respected without unnecessary disruption.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa has long called for the discontinuation of a number of outmoded cultural practices in all of its national congresses. The media, most of which are friends to our opponents, never bother to publish such progressive policy positions as they take away the element of sensationalism. It is the policy of Contralesa that, due to the abuse of the practice of ukuthwala, as a form of initiating a marriage, by certain communities and individuals, it should no longer be followed. In other words we have called on our people to use the more open and above-board ways of initiating marriage relationships, where the consent of two adult males and females, supported by their respective parents, is a pre-condition for a marriage. We oppose the entering into marriage relationships of children under the age of eighteen even if they consent by themselves. People who continue to forcefully take girls into marriage are breaking our law.

With regards to the cultural practice of ukungena, in terms of which a widow is assigned one of her late husband's brothers to be her new husband, we have come to accept that the practice is no longer necessary. We do give recognition to the fact that the altruistic purpose of having a widow made to be wife to her brother-in-law was to ensure that the dead man's family continued to be taken care of by a blood relative, who would have compassion for his sister-in-law, nephews and nieces. Our recent resolution in this regard is that families must be empowered through the many government grant schemes so as to be able stand on their own when the husband/father dies. Importantly we have called for cooperative schemes to be established in every village to enable communities to tap into the spirit informing amalima/letsema to use government support to economically empower themselves.

The education of the girl-child is one of the calls we make in our national congresses to advance the development of our African communities. Before the advent of democracy we mobilised our communities to build schools for the education of the rural children. Now that we can no longer do so on account of the government having undertaken to build the schools for all South Africans, we continue to lobby government to do so. We are saddened that many of our schools are still made of mud and wattle tree poles, with no electricity, water, sanitation, libraries, computers and laboratories, when money is available but misused. We have called for an end to initiation practices which amount to female genital mutilation as they no longer serve any useful purpose.

We call on all who are concerned for the plight of rural women and children to work with us and stop hurling insults and abuse at traditional leaders, for we may turn out to be more equipped than they are at such conduct. They will be surprised at how much we can gain as partners than as the enemies that they have cast themselves to be.

The ANC must do the right thing this time around and give leadership.

ISSUED BY NKOSI PHATHEKILE HOLOMISA (AH! DILIZINTABA), PRESIDENT OF CONTRALESA AND ANC MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IN CAPE TOWN ON 13 JUNE 2012

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Statement issued by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP, President of the Inkatha Freedom Party, June 18 2012

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