The African National Congress (ANC) says it will seek a meeting with the King of the amaZulu Goodwill Zwelithini to clarify its position on the expropriation of land without compensation.
This follows the King’s imbizo with his subjects in Nongoma on Wednesday where he expressed his unhappiness at reports that there is an intention by government to disband the Ingonyama Trust.
The trust owns vast tracts of land in KwaZulu-Natal. In his address, King Zwelithini threatened to secede his nation and the province from South Africa if government goes ahead with the dismantling the 24-year-old trust. The land question is an emotive subject in Africa and South Africa is by no means an exception.
Since a motion to expropriate land without compensation was passed in Parliament earlier this year, millions of South Africans have made submissions on the issue and public hearings on whether to amend Section 25 of the Constitution are underway across the country.
What has emerged as a hot topic is the role of traditional leaders in the land debate, particularly after former President Kgalema Motlanthe’s Policy Review Panel recommended that the Ingonyama Trust which owns approximately 60% of land in KwaZulu-Natal be dismantled. This did not sit well with the King of the amaZulu Goodwill Zwelithini.
However, the ANC Head of Campaigns, Fikile Mbalula says they will clarify their position with the King.
”The ANC will not want to engage in a dialogue with the King but the ANC wants a decent conversation with the King because to talk pass each other will be misconstrued … We will talk with the King to articulate the position of the ANC very clear.”
Mbalula says the Kgalema Motlanthe report is not an ANC report insisting that if the ANC has wronged anyone it will humble itself and apologise if needs be.
”It doesn’t mean if someone expresses a radical view or a position on a particular matter is the view of the ANC. Comrade Motlanthe, in relation to those views of the comments he made at the summit as a presenter, is not the view of the ANC. The ANC will speak for itself and if there is any apology that needs to be offered to anybody including the King, the ANC will do that on its own accord and led by its leadership and that’s what will actually happen.”
He says it is unfortunate that an impression has been created that the ANC has something against the King and his people. ”We will engage with the King as an organisation because our name is all over the place. That this is the ANC position, the ANC is fighting the King. There is no such and in this particular instance the ANC will engage with the King at the highest level on the matters.”
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit KwaZulu-Natal this weekend for his Thuma Mina Campaign which seeks to rally the party’s rank and file members to selflessly address the challenges facing communities.
The reception he will receive there will give some indication of whether the party is deemed to be at odds with the wishes of the people specifically on the land issue.
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