Opinion / Columnist
King Goodwill Zwelithini is out of order
28 Mar 2015 at 12:40hrs | Views
It is with such a heavy heart that I read the King's sentiments. Not only are his sentiments misplaced, but they are treasonous. These sentiments on mass media forums are a coup de tat to the spirit of Ubuntu where South Africa is founded upon.
In the new constitutional dispensation of South Africa, the idea of freedom of speech in South Africa is not free of cynicism. Many a time when a crime of verbal diarrhea activity is rife, skeptics would ordinarily lament the absence of Ubuntu in the society and attribute this absence to what they view as the permissiveness which is said to have been brought about by the Constitution with its entrenched Bill of Rights. The codified South African Constitution has the Bill of Rights which equally demands for respect for human rights in the society. This is the very same Ubuntu values that the Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular aim to inculcate in our society.
I would like to take this opportunity and (attempt to) demonstrate the irony in the King's remarks that the absence of the African values of Ubuntu in his sentiments leads to a society that people often lament. The Spirit of Africa is attributable to the existence of the Constitution with its demands for respect for human rights when an abuse of such becomes rife. The very same values that the Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular aim to inculcate in our society, are the very same ones that the King is trampling upon!
The debauchery doesn't just stop here. The King's sentiments are absolutely against the background of the loud calls for an African Renaissance that has now become topical globally. This is nothing but just an exhibition which lays bare the carelessness of one individual from a supposedly respectable indigenous-common-law office which has detrimental effects to the traditional African values of Ubuntu which coincidentally have influenced the development of not just the new South African law and jurisprudence, but African Renaissance and the whole international law.
What can also be fished out from the King's unwise words is the definition of the word foreigner. A foreigner according to many is the light skinned or the navy blue Lagos born Odemwinje Akinwunmi, and the Ethiopian Alexandra spaza-shop owner named Kebede Fikru Teffera Kabedech Asnake Asnaku who practices under the name and style of KFT Spaza Trading. Not to be left out are those Achimwenes from Malawi shouting 'woza-woza-chipi-chipi-lamba-ramba-lamba-fifty-land (R50)' (who ply their trade between MTN Rank-Parkstation in Johannesburg CBD).
Another foreigner is that Zimbabwean lady wearing the 'black tommy tennis carrying a scotch-carrier-bag (saga-bag) full of embroidery doiris' shoes who is forever being asked for her bribe, I mean passport by the police. A foreigner is that Nigerian huge fella with a barbing shop in Claim Street and in Point road. A foreigner is that, Pakistani with a cellshop and always negotiates the price with 'how much you got', not to be left out is Ga Akan Ewe Cudjoe Kwame Annan Essien Richards who sells that cheap hairpieces for them ladies, and of course my senior Pastor Ebenezar Adarkwa Mensah Otabil Yiadom Agyepong Ishmael.
The funny part of this is that neither Mr. Robert Muller a commercial white farmer who was displaced from Zimbabwe is not a foreigner; nor Mr. Nikolas D'or from France a sushi restaurant owner in Sandton is a foreigner. All of these who are in big businesses are exempted from the King's sentiments, and it is only the poor, the lower class which is castigated. If anything is to go by, the King needs an orientation into the African customary 101 lecture. For such stereotyped way of thinking is harmful to the African principle of Ubuntu as well as his Zulu culture and beliefs.
At this point, with this in mind, it is thus my respectful submission that the King's misplaced comments are nothing, but a direct insult to the school of thought that brought up the universal principle of Ubuntu and wherefore I pray that the mighty wrath of the Human Rights Law take its full course. The precedent was set in the 'dubul'ibunu' scandal that featured the then President of the ANCYL (African National Congress Youth League), who is now the current founding President of the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) Julius Sello Malema.
It is my respectful submissions that there is a patriotic obligation on all of us not to allow our African Renaissance and the idea of respect for human rights and dignity to slide into such disrepute.
Probably at this juncture there is a need for a virgin reflection on how Ubuntu fits into our society. Despite the fact that there is no single definition of Ubuntu, it common knowledge that Ubuntu is a lifestyle and most principles are predominantly characterized by many overarching themes.
Some of the overarching themes are inta alia: acceptance of our differences in the society, mutual respect and understanding of one another, treatment of each other with dignity, reconciliation and unity, value of human life, he spirit of selflessness and sharing as well as the built up emotional environment of trust.
What the King has to comprehend is that Ubuntu is not what others do for you, but it is about responsibility. As much as the King has the right to be respectfully treated with great honor and dignity, he also has a responsibility to respect and treat others with dignity. No man is an island. In the native IsiZulu we say:
'umuntu ngumuntu, ngabantu ngoba vele izandla ziyagezana and… mara …futhi wenza kwabanye lokho ofun' benze kuwe' (excuse my corrupt Jo'burg-Zulu)
Roughly translated it means no man is an island and do unto others what you would like them to do unto you. Ubuntu serves as the spiritual foundation of African societies which entails that being human is the humanity we show each other through a basic understanding, caring, respect and compassion for others. This philosophy affirms that a person is a person through other people that we are all related, interdependent and connected to each other.
With the spirit and values of Ubuntu respected in society, will be a better place. This is so because the spirit of Ubuntu in the society is against all forms of crimes against humanity and this attributes to the existence of respect amongst the residents in a community. Thus its value has also been viewed as a basis for a morality of co-operation, compassion, communalism and concern for the interests of the collective respect for the dignity of personhood, all the time emphasizing the virtues of that dignity in social relationships and practices.
I respectfully submit that the King fails to comprehend that South Africa is not a country but it is a 'continent'. South Africa is a multicultural society and indigenous and common law attributes prevail in the society.
As we speak Xenophobia has claimed many lives and businesses of innocent people: hence currently there is a dire need to harness Ubuntu carefully, and let it percolate into the community on purpose, creatively and with ingenuity so that age-old African social innovations and historical cultural experiences are aligned with present day living notions and techniques: only if the intention is to create a legitimate system of living for all Africans residing in the continent of South Africa.
I respectfully submit that the King is absolutely out of order and he should be made to withdraw and face the full bench of the Human Rights Commission! One exponent reiterated that politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason. I presume he forgot to add kings.
Who is King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekazulu?
He is the reigning King of the Zulus who took over the reins on the 17th of September 1968 and whose coronation was in late 1971. The 67 year old has one consort and five wives and he has been declared a father 27 times. The spirit of Africaness demanded that a man should show his prowess by and with the number of his offspring and wives. We absolutely respect the Zulu monarchy for such, and the same applies to the president and of course to the Mighty King Mswathi the third from the Kingdom of Swaziland! The two Kings are all equally at par in terms of behavior with the female species and in having a flashy test of cars and nice things at the expense of the taxpayers!
The interesting part of the King's life is the fact that he has an expensive taste of flashy wheels for his wives that costs the taxpayers a fortune. This is irrespective of the fact that he resides in the republic's only province that has a name and surname: KwaZulu Natal where a larger percentage of the population is living in abject poverty. In 2006 alone the King's kraal bought wheels for over a million in rands. In 2012 the his royal highness demanded R18 million from the KwaZulu Natal government to build new property, which included a new R6m palace of his youngest, sweet and dashing wife Queen Mafu and upgrades to Queen MaMchiza's palace. Not to be forgotten is the bill for linen, designer clothes and expensive holidays which were nothing below 24 000 US dollars.
Interestingly so is the fact that the King is reported to be too broke to pay for his groceries to feed his six wives and 27 children. The irony of it all is the fact that the King receives an annual royal support from the South African taxpayers of R54.2 million
With all due respect from a customary setup, the King's misguided comments and reiterations are misplaced and misguided. Such can only trigger more Xenophobic attacks on the foreign nationals.
It was rather funny when the former Police Commissioner Bheki Cele said the police must shoot-to-kill despite a lot of them being in a chest-in-stomach-out-shape instead of being chest-out-stomach-in! It was disturbing when he came back and said that Archbishop Desmond Tutu must SHAARRUUP and go home as he is not deputy-Jesus-Christ. Someone just has to say something.
The King rightfully submitted that during the Apartheid regime the local ministers sought refuge and had degrees around Africa. This is supported by the African philosophy that when your house on fire, you seek refugee under the neighbor's roof. This is the spirit of Africa that we know. According to the King's sentiments, he is sending people packing back into the warzone, the firing line.
Pity Thabo Mbeki was recalled in a fashionable way, and unfortunately Colonel Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi is no longer around to implement the United Africa, I wonder what the King would have said had that been implemented already. May the Colonel's soul rest in eternal peace; we respect the dead.
The foreign nationals have done their part in developing the nation as a whole. Cheap labour has always been the order of the day, and yet there are some who cry foul over the employment of the foreign nationals. The problem is the employer who is abusing the disadvantaged and making them work for peanuts!
After all is said and done, I respectfully submit that the King's sentiments are out of order and they need to be withdrawn before it is too late, before heads roll. Remember the shower-cure method was a hit for a very long time and it indirectly led to a baby-boom as well as exposed one two few many people to the deadly virus.
Whether he likes it or not, the King needs to withdraw!
Let the events unfold!
----------------------------
Moruti Chadya Tapiwa Diamond is a Father, a Legal Practitioner, a Lecturer, a Researcher, a political analyst-cum-activist and is also the director of Information and Publicity in the South African Youth Assembly of the Morgan Tsvangirai led Movement for Democratic Change. Diamond is a man after God's heart like King David and serves in the House of the Lord at Maritzburg Christian Church (MCC). He read law the University of KwaZulu Natal and is Researching towards an LLM. He concomitantly lives in the Natal Midlands and Johannesburg. He can be contacted on 27 (0)84 566 2756 or email him at diamondtapiwa@gmail.com
In the new constitutional dispensation of South Africa, the idea of freedom of speech in South Africa is not free of cynicism. Many a time when a crime of verbal diarrhea activity is rife, skeptics would ordinarily lament the absence of Ubuntu in the society and attribute this absence to what they view as the permissiveness which is said to have been brought about by the Constitution with its entrenched Bill of Rights. The codified South African Constitution has the Bill of Rights which equally demands for respect for human rights in the society. This is the very same Ubuntu values that the Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular aim to inculcate in our society.
I would like to take this opportunity and (attempt to) demonstrate the irony in the King's remarks that the absence of the African values of Ubuntu in his sentiments leads to a society that people often lament. The Spirit of Africa is attributable to the existence of the Constitution with its demands for respect for human rights when an abuse of such becomes rife. The very same values that the Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular aim to inculcate in our society, are the very same ones that the King is trampling upon!
The debauchery doesn't just stop here. The King's sentiments are absolutely against the background of the loud calls for an African Renaissance that has now become topical globally. This is nothing but just an exhibition which lays bare the carelessness of one individual from a supposedly respectable indigenous-common-law office which has detrimental effects to the traditional African values of Ubuntu which coincidentally have influenced the development of not just the new South African law and jurisprudence, but African Renaissance and the whole international law.
What can also be fished out from the King's unwise words is the definition of the word foreigner. A foreigner according to many is the light skinned or the navy blue Lagos born Odemwinje Akinwunmi, and the Ethiopian Alexandra spaza-shop owner named Kebede Fikru Teffera Kabedech Asnake Asnaku who practices under the name and style of KFT Spaza Trading. Not to be left out are those Achimwenes from Malawi shouting 'woza-woza-chipi-chipi-lamba-ramba-lamba-fifty-land (R50)' (who ply their trade between MTN Rank-Parkstation in Johannesburg CBD).
Another foreigner is that Zimbabwean lady wearing the 'black tommy tennis carrying a scotch-carrier-bag (saga-bag) full of embroidery doiris' shoes who is forever being asked for her bribe, I mean passport by the police. A foreigner is that Nigerian huge fella with a barbing shop in Claim Street and in Point road. A foreigner is that, Pakistani with a cellshop and always negotiates the price with 'how much you got', not to be left out is Ga Akan Ewe Cudjoe Kwame Annan Essien Richards who sells that cheap hairpieces for them ladies, and of course my senior Pastor Ebenezar Adarkwa Mensah Otabil Yiadom Agyepong Ishmael.
The funny part of this is that neither Mr. Robert Muller a commercial white farmer who was displaced from Zimbabwe is not a foreigner; nor Mr. Nikolas D'or from France a sushi restaurant owner in Sandton is a foreigner. All of these who are in big businesses are exempted from the King's sentiments, and it is only the poor, the lower class which is castigated. If anything is to go by, the King needs an orientation into the African customary 101 lecture. For such stereotyped way of thinking is harmful to the African principle of Ubuntu as well as his Zulu culture and beliefs.
At this point, with this in mind, it is thus my respectful submission that the King's misplaced comments are nothing, but a direct insult to the school of thought that brought up the universal principle of Ubuntu and wherefore I pray that the mighty wrath of the Human Rights Law take its full course. The precedent was set in the 'dubul'ibunu' scandal that featured the then President of the ANCYL (African National Congress Youth League), who is now the current founding President of the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) Julius Sello Malema.
It is my respectful submissions that there is a patriotic obligation on all of us not to allow our African Renaissance and the idea of respect for human rights and dignity to slide into such disrepute.
Probably at this juncture there is a need for a virgin reflection on how Ubuntu fits into our society. Despite the fact that there is no single definition of Ubuntu, it common knowledge that Ubuntu is a lifestyle and most principles are predominantly characterized by many overarching themes.
Some of the overarching themes are inta alia: acceptance of our differences in the society, mutual respect and understanding of one another, treatment of each other with dignity, reconciliation and unity, value of human life, he spirit of selflessness and sharing as well as the built up emotional environment of trust.
What the King has to comprehend is that Ubuntu is not what others do for you, but it is about responsibility. As much as the King has the right to be respectfully treated with great honor and dignity, he also has a responsibility to respect and treat others with dignity. No man is an island. In the native IsiZulu we say:
'umuntu ngumuntu, ngabantu ngoba vele izandla ziyagezana and… mara …futhi wenza kwabanye lokho ofun' benze kuwe' (excuse my corrupt Jo'burg-Zulu)
Roughly translated it means no man is an island and do unto others what you would like them to do unto you. Ubuntu serves as the spiritual foundation of African societies which entails that being human is the humanity we show each other through a basic understanding, caring, respect and compassion for others. This philosophy affirms that a person is a person through other people that we are all related, interdependent and connected to each other.
With the spirit and values of Ubuntu respected in society, will be a better place. This is so because the spirit of Ubuntu in the society is against all forms of crimes against humanity and this attributes to the existence of respect amongst the residents in a community. Thus its value has also been viewed as a basis for a morality of co-operation, compassion, communalism and concern for the interests of the collective respect for the dignity of personhood, all the time emphasizing the virtues of that dignity in social relationships and practices.
As we speak Xenophobia has claimed many lives and businesses of innocent people: hence currently there is a dire need to harness Ubuntu carefully, and let it percolate into the community on purpose, creatively and with ingenuity so that age-old African social innovations and historical cultural experiences are aligned with present day living notions and techniques: only if the intention is to create a legitimate system of living for all Africans residing in the continent of South Africa.
I respectfully submit that the King is absolutely out of order and he should be made to withdraw and face the full bench of the Human Rights Commission! One exponent reiterated that politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason. I presume he forgot to add kings.
Who is King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekazulu?
He is the reigning King of the Zulus who took over the reins on the 17th of September 1968 and whose coronation was in late 1971. The 67 year old has one consort and five wives and he has been declared a father 27 times. The spirit of Africaness demanded that a man should show his prowess by and with the number of his offspring and wives. We absolutely respect the Zulu monarchy for such, and the same applies to the president and of course to the Mighty King Mswathi the third from the Kingdom of Swaziland! The two Kings are all equally at par in terms of behavior with the female species and in having a flashy test of cars and nice things at the expense of the taxpayers!
The interesting part of the King's life is the fact that he has an expensive taste of flashy wheels for his wives that costs the taxpayers a fortune. This is irrespective of the fact that he resides in the republic's only province that has a name and surname: KwaZulu Natal where a larger percentage of the population is living in abject poverty. In 2006 alone the King's kraal bought wheels for over a million in rands. In 2012 the his royal highness demanded R18 million from the KwaZulu Natal government to build new property, which included a new R6m palace of his youngest, sweet and dashing wife Queen Mafu and upgrades to Queen MaMchiza's palace. Not to be forgotten is the bill for linen, designer clothes and expensive holidays which were nothing below 24 000 US dollars.
Interestingly so is the fact that the King is reported to be too broke to pay for his groceries to feed his six wives and 27 children. The irony of it all is the fact that the King receives an annual royal support from the South African taxpayers of R54.2 million
With all due respect from a customary setup, the King's misguided comments and reiterations are misplaced and misguided. Such can only trigger more Xenophobic attacks on the foreign nationals.
It was rather funny when the former Police Commissioner Bheki Cele said the police must shoot-to-kill despite a lot of them being in a chest-in-stomach-out-shape instead of being chest-out-stomach-in! It was disturbing when he came back and said that Archbishop Desmond Tutu must SHAARRUUP and go home as he is not deputy-Jesus-Christ. Someone just has to say something.
The King rightfully submitted that during the Apartheid regime the local ministers sought refuge and had degrees around Africa. This is supported by the African philosophy that when your house on fire, you seek refugee under the neighbor's roof. This is the spirit of Africa that we know. According to the King's sentiments, he is sending people packing back into the warzone, the firing line.
Pity Thabo Mbeki was recalled in a fashionable way, and unfortunately Colonel Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi is no longer around to implement the United Africa, I wonder what the King would have said had that been implemented already. May the Colonel's soul rest in eternal peace; we respect the dead.
The foreign nationals have done their part in developing the nation as a whole. Cheap labour has always been the order of the day, and yet there are some who cry foul over the employment of the foreign nationals. The problem is the employer who is abusing the disadvantaged and making them work for peanuts!
After all is said and done, I respectfully submit that the King's sentiments are out of order and they need to be withdrawn before it is too late, before heads roll. Remember the shower-cure method was a hit for a very long time and it indirectly led to a baby-boom as well as exposed one two few many people to the deadly virus.
Whether he likes it or not, the King needs to withdraw!
Let the events unfold!
----------------------------
Moruti Chadya Tapiwa Diamond is a Father, a Legal Practitioner, a Lecturer, a Researcher, a political analyst-cum-activist and is also the director of Information and Publicity in the South African Youth Assembly of the Morgan Tsvangirai led Movement for Democratic Change. Diamond is a man after God's heart like King David and serves in the House of the Lord at Maritzburg Christian Church (MCC). He read law the University of KwaZulu Natal and is Researching towards an LLM. He concomitantly lives in the Natal Midlands and Johannesburg. He can be contacted on 27 (0)84 566 2756 or email him at diamondtapiwa@gmail.com
Source - Ntate Moruti Tapiwa Diamond Chadya
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