24th April 2008

The IFP contends that the sole purpose of the provincial government's resolution to at last legitimise the full-time office of the Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders in KwaZulu Natal is to compromise the incumbent, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. 

"For years the government ignored Prince Buthelezi's attempts to find a dignified solution to the impasse, only to come up today with an unfair deal which requires the Prince, who already holds the position of Chairperson, to relinquish all other political offices by a looming deadline, to keep it," said IFP MPP Blessed Gwala. 

The resolution announced in the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Parliament today is the government's first response to the Prince's correspondence spanning past two years. The resolution was not consulted with the House of Traditional Leaders prior to today's announcement. 

"This is clearly a case of additional strings being attached to a done deal to compromise the incumbent. The provincial government's first attempt to liquidate Prince Buthelezi through a democratic process backfired when the Prince was overwhelmingly elected Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders in a democratic poll," said Gwala. 

The IFP maintains that Prince Buthelezi has gone along, often harbouring personal doubts, with the transformation process driven by the KwaZulu Natal MEC for Traditional Affairs in the hope of salvaging the ancient institution he sees as vital to the success of a modern Zulu nation. 

"The ruling party is bent on destroying the institution of traditional leadership which it views as an obstacle to its pseudo-liberal agenda.

It is even more determined to liquidate the living symbol of traditional leadership in KwaZulu Natal, Prince Buthelezi, who hails from a different political stable," said Gwala.