News / National
Fierce clashes over 'Ndebele king'
04 Mar 2018 at 20:20hrs | Views
Anti-riot police yesterday cordoned off Barbourfields Stadium (BF) in Bulawayo where the planned coronation of Bulelani Lobengula Khumalo as the king of the Ndebele people was supposed to take place.
The High Court on Friday ruled that the ceremony cannot go ahead, but that did not stop scores of activists thronging the area in anticipation of a visit by the king.
Police had other ideas, beating up the activists to disperse them, resulting in running battles.
Nqobani Ndlovu (NN) spoke to Chief Mathema (CM), the chairperson of the Crown Council, which was organising the event, after the skirmishes. Below is the full interview.
NN: Did you make any plans for the king to meet his subjects following his arrival on Friday and after the High Court stopped his coronation?
CM: Actually, we had planned to have the king go to Mzilikazi, on an open space near BF to just greet the people, and tell them to disperse while we engage government or explore other avenues to address this issue.
However, cops, overzealous as usual, provoked the people and started beating them up. People wanted to see their king.
There is nothing that we can do since police work under instruction. Unfortunately, and sadly, this matter has been politicised by the government yet it is purely a traditional issue.
This is not a new thing. Under the Ndebele tradition, a king has always been there. We haven't had a king since 1893 after the destruction of the Ndebele kingdom by the Pioneer Column.
What is painful is that more than 100 years after, we have a black-led government that still has a mentality of the Pioneer Column that destroyed the Ndebele kingdom.
NN: And your reaction to the High Court ban — what is the way forward?
CM: We will of course sit down and strategise on the way forward. And, yes, we are definitely going to appeal that ruling.
Unfortunately, while we can seek redress at the courts, we understand that people are appointed to some posts, judges for example, and appointees can disappoint those that did not appoint them.
That is a fact. Judges can easily be given an instruction to give certain rulings.
In that same vein and interestingly, the judgement we got on Friday is almost similar to what (Local Government) minister (July) Moyo wrote to me in banning today's [yesterday's] coronation.
And in that letter, the minister did not quote any section of the constitution. It was more of a love letter, just an ordinary letter to me.
NN: Any other avenues you are exploring outside courts to find redress? Engaging government, protests maybe?
CM: What government must realise and know is that Khumalo is our king, whether there is an official ceremony or not. He is our king.
Government might have its own ideas, but at the end of the day, we are black people, we have cultures, traditions and norms that have been there, been followed for I don't know how long.
Also, as black people, we are different, we have different traditions and cultures and government must just respect that. I think government is being paranoid to think we want to cause secession, no, far from it.
We want a king as given in our traditional leadership set-up. We are not fighting government or trying to hijack its powers.
That is why we even notified the government up to the level of the presidency about this ceremony to show that there is nothing sinister in having a public event to unveil the king to the people.
If government had any other misgivings, they were supposed to engage us in time, air their concerns and we would have addressed them and not to send police officers to beat and teargas people for wanting to see the king.
NN: If you can explain the duties of the king? What will he be doing?
CM: In our culture, the traditional leadership structure does not end at the level of a chief, it goes high up to the level of a king.
There are some duties that can be done by chiefs, and at the same time there are some duties that are beyond their level and require a king. That is where Khumalo comes in.
Our set-up is not different from that of South Africa where we come from.
It has always been like that, we found it like that and we will depart this earth and leave the Ndebele traditional leadership set-up like that. It is a fact that we cannot change.
There are some who are saying we should wait to have an enabling Act to have a king, but we are also saying we want to have our culture guard this whole process as you cannot regulate a people's culture.
NN: You mentioned that government is handling this whole matter in a political manner. There are others who now accuse government of making this issue tribal. Your thoughts?
CM: I am not the one saying it, but, yes, a lot of people now have a feeling that this is all about tribalism since a certain tribe is being stopped from wanting to enjoy and practice some of its traditional practices.
People are being beaten up simply for wanting to respect their tradition. They are being teargassed.
I don't know how human rights groups and lawyers view all this, but If that is not tribalism, what is it?
The High Court on Friday ruled that the ceremony cannot go ahead, but that did not stop scores of activists thronging the area in anticipation of a visit by the king.
Police had other ideas, beating up the activists to disperse them, resulting in running battles.
Nqobani Ndlovu (NN) spoke to Chief Mathema (CM), the chairperson of the Crown Council, which was organising the event, after the skirmishes. Below is the full interview.
NN: Did you make any plans for the king to meet his subjects following his arrival on Friday and after the High Court stopped his coronation?
CM: Actually, we had planned to have the king go to Mzilikazi, on an open space near BF to just greet the people, and tell them to disperse while we engage government or explore other avenues to address this issue.
However, cops, overzealous as usual, provoked the people and started beating them up. People wanted to see their king.
There is nothing that we can do since police work under instruction. Unfortunately, and sadly, this matter has been politicised by the government yet it is purely a traditional issue.
This is not a new thing. Under the Ndebele tradition, a king has always been there. We haven't had a king since 1893 after the destruction of the Ndebele kingdom by the Pioneer Column.
What is painful is that more than 100 years after, we have a black-led government that still has a mentality of the Pioneer Column that destroyed the Ndebele kingdom.
NN: And your reaction to the High Court ban — what is the way forward?
CM: We will of course sit down and strategise on the way forward. And, yes, we are definitely going to appeal that ruling.
Unfortunately, while we can seek redress at the courts, we understand that people are appointed to some posts, judges for example, and appointees can disappoint those that did not appoint them.
That is a fact. Judges can easily be given an instruction to give certain rulings.
In that same vein and interestingly, the judgement we got on Friday is almost similar to what (Local Government) minister (July) Moyo wrote to me in banning today's [yesterday's] coronation.
And in that letter, the minister did not quote any section of the constitution. It was more of a love letter, just an ordinary letter to me.
NN: Any other avenues you are exploring outside courts to find redress? Engaging government, protests maybe?
CM: What government must realise and know is that Khumalo is our king, whether there is an official ceremony or not. He is our king.
Government might have its own ideas, but at the end of the day, we are black people, we have cultures, traditions and norms that have been there, been followed for I don't know how long.
Also, as black people, we are different, we have different traditions and cultures and government must just respect that. I think government is being paranoid to think we want to cause secession, no, far from it.
We want a king as given in our traditional leadership set-up. We are not fighting government or trying to hijack its powers.
That is why we even notified the government up to the level of the presidency about this ceremony to show that there is nothing sinister in having a public event to unveil the king to the people.
If government had any other misgivings, they were supposed to engage us in time, air their concerns and we would have addressed them and not to send police officers to beat and teargas people for wanting to see the king.
NN: If you can explain the duties of the king? What will he be doing?
CM: In our culture, the traditional leadership structure does not end at the level of a chief, it goes high up to the level of a king.
There are some duties that can be done by chiefs, and at the same time there are some duties that are beyond their level and require a king. That is where Khumalo comes in.
Our set-up is not different from that of South Africa where we come from.
It has always been like that, we found it like that and we will depart this earth and leave the Ndebele traditional leadership set-up like that. It is a fact that we cannot change.
There are some who are saying we should wait to have an enabling Act to have a king, but we are also saying we want to have our culture guard this whole process as you cannot regulate a people's culture.
NN: You mentioned that government is handling this whole matter in a political manner. There are others who now accuse government of making this issue tribal. Your thoughts?
CM: I am not the one saying it, but, yes, a lot of people now have a feeling that this is all about tribalism since a certain tribe is being stopped from wanting to enjoy and practice some of its traditional practices.
People are being beaten up simply for wanting to respect their tradition. They are being teargassed.
I don't know how human rights groups and lawyers view all this, but If that is not tribalism, what is it?
Source - the standard
