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SA: Mangosuthu Buthelezi: Address by the Inkatha Freedom Party President, during the commemoration of Kgoshi Mampuru II, Moshate, Limpopo (25/01/2014)

SA: Mangosuthu Buthelezi: Address by the Inkatha Freedom Party President, during the commemoration of Kgoshi Mampuru II, Moshate, Limpopo (25/01/2014)

25th January 2014

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I salute Kgosi Mampuru III; His Excellency the Minister of Cooperative
Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli; His Excellency the
Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Sibusiso Ndebele; the Honourable
Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Joe Phaahla; the Honourable Premier
of Limpopo, Mr Chupu Stan Mathabatha; His Worship the District Mayor,
Councillor Mogobo David Magabe; His Worship the Mayor of Makhuduthamaga
Local Municipality, Mr Alfred Matlala; royalty and Amakhosi present;
honoured guests.

I consider it a privilege to have been asked by Kgosi Mampuru III to
participate in today's commemoration in honour of his ancestor. In April
last year, I bore witness to the official renaming of Pretoria Management
Area to Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area. As I did so, I felt empathy, and a
pacifying sense of satisfaction, for my own family history also bears the
marks of undignified loss and I know the significance of remembering our
fallen ancestors.

It is a great thing for Kgosi Mampuru II to be honoured and commemorated. It
is the least we can do for a man who died resisting oppression in our
country.

I can only imagine the deep emotions that today's commemoration must stir in
Kgosi Mampuru III and in the people of the Bapedi nation. The brutal and
inhumane manner of Kgosi Mampuru II's execution must certainly have left a
stain on the hearts and minds of a people. I pray that through ceremonies
like this, the stain will be erased. It is not that we will no longer
remember. But that - when we remember - we will do so from a place of
healing.

Although the burial site of Kgosi Mampuru II is still not known, it is
fitting that we have stood on the site of his last days and his death, to
honour him and remember his courage. It is fitting too that we gather again
to commemorate Kgosi Mampuru II today.

Coming from the line of Zulu royalty, I empathise with the Bapedi King,
remembering how my own paternal grandfather, Inkosi Mkhandumba Buthelezi,
was executed on the 22nd of February 1911 in the Pietermaritzburg gaol. He
was accused, on trumped up charges, of murder, and sentenced to be hanged,
despite the fact that there was no corpus delicti. The alleged body was
never found.

Because of the absence of a body, the then Minister of Justice, JBM Hertzog,
recommended a reprieve. But the Governor General, Lord Gladstone, followed
the recommendation of Judge President Henri Boshoff, and Inkosi Mkhandumba
was hanged.

This history bears similarities to the hanging of Kgosi Mampuru II, 28 years
previously, in whose case President Kruger gave assurances that sentence
would not be carried out until he had discussed the matter with the British
Colonial Secretary, Lord Derby. Despite those assurances, Kgosi Mampuru II
was hanged.

I understand how an injustice perpetrated more than a century ago still
affects a people today. My own family is still pained by the hanging of my
paternal grandfather. Inkosi Mkhandumba was among the brave warriors who
fought the Anglo-Zulu War and survived the Battle of Isandlwana on the 22nd
of January 1879. That was the first major battle between the British Empire
and the Zulu Kingdom, in which the British suffered a crushing defeat.

Yet, even though he remains a hero of our nation, just as in the case of
Kgosi Mampuru II, we do not know where Inkosi Mkhandumba is buried. It is
difficult to find closure in a matter like this.

Inkosi Mkhandumba's father, my great grandfather, Inkosi Mnyamana
kaNqengelele Buthelezi, was, at the time, serving as the traditional Prime
Minister to the Zulu monarch, King Cetshwayo. As such, he was Commander in
Chief of all the Kings regiments, and led his own sons, including Inkosi
Mkhandumba, into battle.

It was a particularly difficult time, for King Dinuzulu, who had only
recently returned from exile on the Island of St Helena, was suddenly
implicated in the Bambatha Rebellion, sentenced for treason and imprisoned.
The Bambatha Rebellion was a protest against the imposition of poll tax. The
King, my maternal grandfather, was innocent, but was implicated when he
acquiesced to Inkosi Bambatha's plea for refuge for his wife and daughter,
who were brought to the King's Osuthu residence.

In 1910, the year before Inkosi Mkhandumba was hanged, General Louis Botha
became the first Prime Minister of South Africa, and ordered that King
Dinuzulu be released. Yet he was not allowed to return home. The King was
transported to the farm Uitkyk in the Transvaal, where he died three years
later.

This unsettling history is part of the fabric of my nation and part of who I
am. In the same way, the undignified death of Kgosi Mampuru II is part of
the fabric of the Bapedi nation. It cannot be undone. But we can give
resonance to Kgosi Mampuru II's life, and his death, by remembering and
honouring his name.

Even now, in my mind's eyes, I picture the 200 spectators who paid to
witness the despicable execution of a King. I picture Booth, the
executioner, and the gaoler with his officials. As they looked upon a naked
prisoner, condemned to death, they could never have imagined that 130 years
into the future, the very soil on which they stood would be named for their
victim. To some degree, justice has been done. I pay special tribute to the
Honourable Minister of Correctional Services Dr Ndebele for that

But whatever healing that renaming ceremony brought to the Bapedi nation,
there is still work to be done to close the wound and restore what was
taken. That work is performed in moments like this, as we commemorate Kgosi
Mampuru II and all he did towards freedom from oppression in our beloved
country.

My only sadness in the twilight of my life is that after 20 years of our
democratic era, solemn promises that were made to a Coalition of Traditional
Leaders of South Africa by the democratic government have not been honoured
since the year 2000.  On November 30, 2000 a Cabinet Committee set up by
President Mbeki, which consisted of Cabinet Ministers, Senior Counsels and
Traditional Leaders came to the conclusion that in order to prevent the
obliteration of the powers and functions of Traditional Leaders, that
Chapter 7 and Chapter 12 of the Constitution will be amended.  Even the
legislation on Traditional Leadership that is now in the offing does not
address this issue of the powers and functions of Traditional Leaders.

I am honoured to be a part of this work of restoration and healing. I thank
His Majesty the King for inviting me to be here and I offer my wholehearted
support.

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