“Marching headmen” undermine traditional authority, says Premier Mabuza
02 August 2012
Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza has come hard on traditional headmen who marched last week to the provincial government headquarters to demand salary increment, saying they undermined the traditional authority.
Premier Mabuza was speaking at a meeting to introduce the newly elected executive committee of the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders.
He said although the headmen raised valid concerns, their chiefs should have spoken on their behalf using dignified channels instead of marching.
“I have a problem, it means the people who were appointed by you are undermining your authority, it shows that they can even create more problems for you one day,” said the Premier.
This was after the House of the Traditional Leaders told him that they did not approve participation of their headmen in the march.
The Premier said it was strange that the headmen marched without the knowledge of the traditional leaders who appointed them as they also disguised themselves in the name of a political party.
Mabuza added that the house of traditional leaders was a recognised structure which government worked with in delivering the services to the citizens in the province.
“The traditional leaders are an establishment which government cannot do without in changing the lives of the people for the better. We must recognise and give them space to lead our people; otherwise we will end up having a very chaotic nation if we lose our identity.”
“We must understand the importance of the House, it is a not a by-the-way thing. It is there to look into the matters of traditional leaders. If we undermine the traditional leaders, we would be undermining ourselves and we might end up becoming something we do not want,” said Mabuza.
He said the traditional leaders were responsible for ensuring people’s identity.
He warned them against delegating the chieftaincy to other people saying such was creating problems for royal houses.
People in acting positions had all the powers and in most instances they made wrong decisions during their periods of acting and inconvenienced the royal houses.
“Delegation of chieftaincy should not be allowed even if the chief is still a toddler, doing such will create even bigger problems in such a way that people end up being mysteriously killed or taking each other to courts.
“A lot goes wrong during the acting period as some people deliberately destroy the arrangements of traditional leadership. Acting traditional leaders make young legitimate leaders very vulnerable.
“We need to find creative ways of protecting the leaders instead of temporarily delegating leadership, otherwise we will be killing the royal trees by creating enemies for royal families,” he said.
The Premier added that it was unfortunate that the traditional leadership in Mpumalanga did not have a status it deserved as almost 80 percent in the province was under the traditional authority.
The province could learn from KwaZulu-Natal in the manner the provincial government there supported and gave dignity to the traditional leaders, he said.
“It is high time we support our traditional leaders. They should be treated fairly. Let us give them more attention in order for them to be visible enough. If we do not take care of them, we will be killing our nation,” the Premier said.
The chairperson of the house of traditional leaders Kgoshi Mathupha Mokoena had raised a number of concerns asking for the Premier’s assistance.
Amongst other things, Kgoshi Mokoena said the traditional leaders wanted the Premier to ensure that government officially recognised the regents or the acting traditional leaders. He said official recognition letters should still be issued to regents and their acting period reviewed accordingly after a specific period.
He also asked the Premier to ensure that they participate at the provincial government’s executive council lekgotla’s in an effort to be kept abreast about developments in the province especially in the areas they were directly involved in.
Kgoshi Mokoena added that although their committees visited communities to assess service delivery issues, they did not get any response from government on their concerns raised.
Issued by Zibonele Mncwango
Spokesperson: Mpumalanga Premier
Tel: (013) 766 – 2453
Mobile: 079 491 0163
E-mail: zmncwango@mpg.gov.za