SPEECH BY PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MP
PRESIDENT OF THE IFP

It is really wonderful for members of this House to pay tribute to the freedom fighters that blazed the trail of the liberation struggle for those of us who waged the struggle more recently.

On the 11th of June, our President addressed the Inkosi Bhambatha Centenary function at Kwampanza in the Greytown district where it all began. This was in the presence of His Majesty, King Goodwill Zwelithini Ka Bhekezulu Ka Solomon Ka Dinuzulu.

Both His Majesty the King and I were privileged to address the function, as descendents of King Dinuzulu, before President Mbeki delivered the keynote address at the function.

We all paid tribute to Inkosi Bambatha Zondi, and other amaKhosi who participated in the uprising against the colonial Natal Government in 1906, such as the following amaKhosi, Sigananda Shezi, Meseni Qwabe, Ndlovu Ka Thimuni Zulu and several others.

I, however, raised the point in my address of the important role that King Dinuzulu played in the uprising. He was the grandfather of Prince Nhlanhla Ka Nojombo Ka Dinuzulu, a member of this parliament, and who was also my maternal grandfather, the father of Princess Magogo Ka Dinuzulu, my mother.

Dinuzulu was the very kingpin of the uprising. In fact, when Inkosi Bhambatha revolted against the imposition of the poll tax, his first port of call was Osuthu, King Dinuzulu's Royal Residence. Inkosi Bhambatha approached the King with a request to give sanctuary to his better half, Siyekiwe (Ma-Zuma) and his daughter, Kholekile. My late mother told me of the times when she and her siblings were playing with Inkosi Bambatha's daughter.

It was King Dinuzulu's giving of sanctuary to Inkosi Bhambatha's family which resulted in my grandfather being charged and convicted with high treason. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was only in 1910, after the political marriage of convenience when the British and the Boers formed the Union of South Africa after the Anglo Boer War, when the first Prime Minister of South Africa, General Louis Botha, who had also been his friend, released King Dinuzulu from the prison in Newcastle.

I remember that as a member of Cabinet, I explained to my then colleague, the Honourable Steve Tshwete, when he suggested that the statue of General Louis Botha at the gates of parliament be removed, that General Botha was also a friend of King Dinuzulu. I was not canonising General Botha by my observation but was merely making the point that he was part of our history.

General Botha, however, did not allow the King to return to his home. He instead exiled him to the 'Uitkyk' farm in Middleburg where King Dinuzulu died in 1913. This was not the first time King Dinuzulu was banished from his kingdom. In 1888, he had been exiled to the Island of St Helena, after the civil war between the Usuthu and the Mandlakazi sections of the Zulu nation. It was on the island where my mother's two brothers King Solomon Ka Dinuzulu and Prince Mshiyeni Ka Dinuzulu were born.

My mother was born after his return during the Anglo Boer War. The King returned in 1897. Less than 10 years after returning he was implicated in the uprising of 1906.

It is important to state on record that King Dinuzulu's eldest daughter, Princess Phikisile Harriet Ka Dinuzulu, married Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme. 
As all of you know, Dr Pixley Seme was the founder of the African Native Congress in 1912, later the African National Congress. He was not a legend to me as I knew him very closely as my uncle.

It was Dr Seme, my uncle, who wrote a letter in September 1950 to Professor Zachariah Keodireleng "ZK" Matthews, the father of Mr Joe Matthews, our former Deputy-Minister of Safety and Security, and grandfather of our Minister of Education, Ms Naledi Pandor, when I was rusticated from the University of Fort Hare after being involved in a student demonstration against the Governor General, the Honourable G. Brand Van Zyl.

This demonstration was organised by those of us who were members of the African National Congress Youth League.

Inkosi Bambatha was indeed a great hero in starting the uprising. But even he realised that he could not hope to be successful in that venture without getting the king's support. One of the great hero's of that uprising was Shiyanja Sukabekhuluma Sithole popularly known as Chakijana. He acted as a 'go between' between the King, Inkosi Bambatha and other amaKhosi. This was used as further evidence against the King in the treason trial.

In honouring Inkosi Bambatha, we humbly acknowledge those who waged the liberation struggle many decades before the present generation. Indeed, they laid the foundation on which our generation, and the generations before us, made our contributions to the liberation of South Africa.

Hebk! Yusuthu. Hebe Yusuthu.