Away with royal pretenders

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The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims has finally completed its investigation into the status of South Africa’s existing traditional leadership.

The commission has, in the process, stripped some traditional leaders and monarchs of their titles, saying they were created by the former apartheid government.

Part of the commission’s mandate was to right the wrongs of the past, by resolving traditional leadership disputes and claims dating as far back as 1927.
President Thabo Mbeki appointed the commission in 2004, in response to numerous disputes, claims and counter claims, that occurred largely because of “colonial and apartheid laws which provided for the creation of territorial authorities, self-governing states and pseudo- independent enclaves”.
According to the commission, some kingships were created by the apartheid system to enslave Africans who resisted white rule. We hope the findings will lay to rest all the squabbles relating to these authorities, some of which had become a burden to South African taxpayers.
It is up to the government to impress upon those recognised traditional leaders that they need to serve their communities in a positive way. For instance, they must engage in the fight against HIV/Aids and crime.