ZULU KING CLAIMS LAND TARGETED BY SWAZILAND
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.
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COLANI VILAKATI
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19/05/2016 07:25:09
maphalala george
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17/05/2016 10:36:53
Xolani Simphiwe Mkhatshwa
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17/05/2016 10:22:56
Xolani Simphiwe Mkhatshwa
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17/05/2016 10:09:04
Concerned woman
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17/05/2016 10:08:05
Comments (15 posted):
Why would CEO SNCAC not sidelined them when they are boundle of a tootless bud dog who always know how to bark but does not know how to bite,and that is the main reason why SIFTPA is not recognized by member of our community not to talk about the government.
All Zwane know is to always blame people for the downfall, you remember how he was accusing the CEO Swazi TV not allowing them to have their work aired on Swazi TV, after which Dlamini finally gave them three months to showcase their programme for free on TV, nothing to show. He also accused the CEO Airport Aviation last year for not given them advert to make so that they spend the money extravagantly has they did with the 2,000 dollar given them by America Embassy.He has started this year again by accusing the CEO Swaziland National Council of Arts and Culture for sidelined them, when Stanley Dlamini know their weakness and that they all full of talking but less or no action.
Why cant we dissolve this SIFTPA and create another association that understand this Industry, people who has experience and qualification in Filmmaking, not people who struggle to understand Monologue or epilogue. Success is not all about past achievement but your recent and continuity, the chairperson of SIFTPA only did a short film called 'Bajele' almost four years back and they made her a chairperson, after that short film ask her any recent achievement? KUTE.
He has started pointing wrong finger to the only film Insitute that we know that helping our local prduction, he said Lethokusha is a foreign association, while I knew all memeber of this association are all Swazis, they cant do anything but they know how to pointing finger to people. I am not a memeber of Lethokusha Film or neither did I belongs to Arts & Culture but the truth must be told. Lethokusha has helped our local production to an international standard between short period of their existent, if its true, check their profile with Swazi TV, Channel S, as I am talking now sir google Lethokusha on internet,go to the youtube and their website you will see the result of what am talking about, compare to SIFTPA that does not even have a bank account talkless of a simple website, and try and ask someone about SIFTPA they will tell you they dont know them even up to the government level. so what are we talking about.
As a young aspiring producers I attended the workshop organized by SNCAC in conjunction with Lethokusha film, it was good and well organized, I have learnt alot in low budget filmaking within that three days, and I have started working on my short film that will be presented during the National Film Exhibition in November according to the CEO Arts & Culture. So MR. TALKERTIVE 'Zwane' and member of his executive should go home and relax, we are the youth and the strength of this Nation, now we understand what we need to do as we are approaching the digital migration era, so we don't need SIFTPA anymore. The CEO Arts & Culture has promised to help us organizing this type of workshop every three months to update ourselves and brainstorm together and Lethokusha Film has assured us that they will continue standing behind us till we prove to be the best of the best.
My advise to CEO Arts & Culture is to ignore those people calling themselves Independent producers, and focus on we the upcoming producers and actors who are just coming out of school, we are ready to serve the Nation and to make Film Industry a better Industry in Swaziland.
I am not against any groups or Institutions Mr. Editor,but honor must be given to whom that deserve it, Lethokusha deserve to be praised for a wonderful host of the recent workshop in Manzini,we are looking forward to the next Film Exhibition later this year.
Thank you for allowing me to voice out on this issue, now I'm release and relax.
The issue of ‘lost land’ must be dealt with to the end. Swazis are a peaceful nation but they are by no means a nonentity that must be trampled upon. I recall His Majesty Mswati III’s speech at the opening of the 7th Parliament where mentioned that history and facts are on our side, we must prevail in this matter. Our fore fathers fought for the land in question, blood was spilled and lives were lost but today we are denied freedom and right to enjoy the natural resources and beautiful land of our ancestors. Today you can be declared a prohibited emigrant for up to five years by South Africa for staying ‘illegally’ in these areas. Is it because we are a small and less powerful country than our neighbours that our rights and privileges are denied? History tells us that Swaziland lost a vast amount of land because of land deals and concessions. We must be very careful that we do not shoot ourselves in the foot by now negotiating for meagre parcels of land. All ‘lost’ Swazi land must be returned unconditionally.
I get so agitated when I hear South Africa’s feeble excuses about this matter, such as; they’ve incurred exceedingly high cost of infrastructure and other improvements in these disputed areas; the majority of South African citizens would not want become subjects of King Mswati III because South Africa is now ‘democratic’; it will open flood gates to those who have more legitimate claims; the defunct OAU urged member states to respect as inviolate the colonial-era boundaries, regardless of how faulty and objectionable they were, etc. The truth of the matter is that the land belongs to Swazis, whether residing in Swaziland, South Africa or anywhere else in the world.
The British caused this mess, where are they today, why are they silent? We need to stand-up and demand compensation from Britain also for lost opportunities.
There can only be one solution to this matter, return the land back to Swaziland. If not, allow all Swazis free movement in these areas and agree on an annual compensation that will run in perpetuity. All Swazis must be re-united.
Thank you.
Linda