Times Of Swaziland: ZULU KING CLAIMS LAND  TARGETED BY SWAZILAND

ZULU KING CLAIMS LAND  TARGETED BY SWAZILAND
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BY MBONGENI NDLELA on 14/07/2014 04:35:00


MBABANE – The King of the Zulu, Goodwill Zwelithini, has made intentions to
claim the land that the Government of Swaziland is in the process of reclaiming
from the Republic of South Africa.
The Border Restoration Committee (BRC) is tasked to claim territories which were
annexed by South Africa during colonial times.
According to a list of territorial disputes published by Wikipedia, the area
being claimed by Swaziland is the former Bantustan of KaNgwane, which now forms
the northern parts of Jozini and uMhlabuyalingana local municipalities in
KwaZulu-Natal, and the southern part of Nkomazi, the southeastern part of
Umjindini and the far eastern part of Albert Luthuli local municipalities in
Mpumalanga.
It has, however, transpired that King Zwelithini and KwaZulu-Natal’s
traditional leaders are planning to file the largest land claim where they want
rights to the land that made up the entire Zulu Kingdom.
In their impending land claim, they have included Durban, parts of the Eastern
Cape, Mpumalanga and Free State.
The South African traditionalists have, in their land claim, included the
Mpumalanga Province which the BRC is targeting in its land claim which is
already in progress.
Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering
Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5 per cent of South Africa’s land
area.
Swaziland has, for years, been advocating for parts of Mpumalanga and
KwaZulu-Natal to be transferred to her, on claims that they are historically
part of the country.
The country is seeking to extend its national territory into Mpumalanga
Province, and also claims a non-contiguous portion of northern Mpumalanga,
including a section of Kruger National Park.
These territories are the same which King Zwelithini is claiming.
The claim, which will run into billions of Rands will cover land that fell under
the control of the Zulus at the time of colonial dispossession – a massive
tract of urban and rural land in Mpumalanga.
The claim will be filed under the Land Rights Amendment Bill set as 1913.
Multi-billion
According to the City Press, King Zwelithini’s multi-billion-Rand claim is
being planned and coordinated by the Ingonyama Trust.
“On Thursday Zwelithini and the province’s house of traditional leaders,
which represent KwaZulu-Natal’s chiefs, met for a two-day workshop about the
land claim process, which has been reopened for another five years with the
enactment of the new land restitution law, the Land Rights Amendment Bill,”
City Press stated.
Judge Jerome Ngwenya, Chairman of the Ingonyama Trust, said; “There will be
cases where others claim the same land as us. For example, where a chief was
placed in charge of a certain area by the king.
“The chief’s family may also submit a land claim to the government, but as
it stands we are working with our traditional leaders to compile one claim for
the land that was taken from the Zulu nation.”
An attempt to get a comment from the BRC proved futile as the committee has not
responded to questions sent by the Times Investigations Desk.
For four days, Prince Guduza, Chairman of the BRC, has been promising to respond
to enquiries by this publication. On Tuesday, the prince promised to respond via
an email but did not.
Again, on Wednesday he said the committee was meeting over the land claim issue
and that it would respond before close of business that day.
Despite this promise, there was still no response. On Thursday, the prince
requested to respond on Friday since he had a busy schedule.
However, a follow up was made on Friday and he said he was out of the country
and had left the committee to respond.
He said: “As a committee we have decided to respond to questionnaires. If you
were speaking about Guduza I would have responded immediately. However, you are
now talking about issues of the committee where Guduza is the spokesperson.
“I have introduced your questions to the committee and they demanded a
questionnaire. I have told them the questions. What I can tell you though is
that we are aware of the land claim and we are working on it.”
The BRC was appointed by His Majesty the King to retrieve Swazi territories
allegedly incorporated improperly into South Africa in the 19th century.