SPEECH OF THE MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION, MR
FA MBALULA (MP), DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION TO MARK
AND
CELEBRATE
CEREMONY
OF
THE
THE
87TH
ANNUAL
JOURNEY
OF
COMMONERATIVE
amaHLUBI
akwa
MTHIMKHULU, RUSTENBERG, NORTH WEST PROVINCE,
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, 24 SEPTEMBER 2011.
AAah ZANOKHANYO……!!!!
Aaa Mthimkhulu;
Bayeeethe Hlubi elikhulu;
Mbutho;
Nyana ka Fuba; Nyana ka Zibi;
Silapha eKhaya Khulu namhlanje, sizoku Gubha nani olusuku lubaluleke kangaka
kubantu balapha eMzantsi Afrika!
Programme Director; I am very pleased to be invited to this ceremony today to
represent the government of the Republic of South Africa to mark the 87th
Isikhumbuzo: A Commonerative Celebration of the Arrival of AmaHlubi at
KhayaKhulu”; the celebration of the journey and history of amaHlubi; one of the
South African important tribes; the people on whose shoulders our nation stands.
Ladies and Gentlemen, during the wars of resistance that have been fought by
our people, amaHlubi have played a pivotal role in ensuring that traditional
leadership and tradition remains a living institution and community grounded on
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the South African realities. This was the response to a systematic colonial and
apartheid reality that wanted to divide and destroy the socio-cultural fibre of our
people; their influence and political authority of traditional leaders.
As you celebrate your ….journey on the Heritage Day; it is befitting to remind all
of us here on the road traversed by millions South Africans; Africans in particular
and Black people in general.
Your Majesty, before imperialism, Africa was blessed with many empires and
kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Nubia, now part of Sudan and Egypt, the Mali
Empire in the Western part of Africa and now part of Mali, the Mapungubwe
Empire, now part of the Limpopo Province, the Great Zimbabwe and many other
empires and kingdoms in other parts of Africa.
The major common
denominators among these African Kingdoms and Empires were that they were
politically stable, socially cohesive and economically self-sufficient.
All these
elements were achieved due to the diligent, conscientious and industrious
leadership from our traditional leaders.
Resources such as land, water and
minerals were equally owned by the communities and the traditional leadership
was the custodian of all the resources and wealth of its people.
However, the advent of colonialism and imperialism drastically changed the
political stability of our people; they ruined the economic self-sufficiency and
cohesiveness of our systems.
Our culture and heritage was destroyed and
buried in graves of history. This heritage is more than 3.5 billion years old and it
can not be adequately told without mentioning the role of the traditional
leadership in its preservation.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in almost every epoch of struggle our Kings, Chiefs and
people played a strategic role in resisting the advancement of imperialism and
colonialism. It started with the successful repelling of the landing of Portuguese
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on the shores of the gallant Khoi and San combatants in 1400s which
characterized the arrivals of Vasco Da Gama and the Dutch Settlers led by Jan
van Riebeeck and British settlers led by many governors general.
The situation was worsened by the adoption of the Treaty of Berlin in the late
19th century, the scramble for Africa, were Africa was carved into various colonial
enclaves under the foreign Western powers. This was a period when Africa was
formally colonized. Again, our Kings, Chiefs and people put up one of the most
formidable battles or resistance in the history of colonialism. Here I am referring
to, amongst others, amaMpondo Uprisings and other Frontier Wars, which were
fought in the whole of the Cape, the Battle of Blood River and the Battle of
Isandlwana in Natal and other many Wars of Resistance that were fought in the
then Transvaal in particular Northern part of Transvaal which we christened as
Limpopo after the 1994 democratic breakthrough. But what is said about these
wars is that colonizers were in some instances able to divide our people,
especially traditional leaders.
This particular development had profound effects on the political, social and
economic systems that were implemented by our Kings and Chiefs. Traditional
forms of justice were disposed and replaced with the magisterial systems, while
the hybrid communal and subsistence traditional mode of economic production
was replaced to suit the exportation of our resources and minerals through
various laws such as the Poll Tax and formation of reserves which forced many
tillers of the soil and breeders of the livestock to leave their homesteads and
seek employment in mines, kitchens and other forms of degrading occupations
that destroyed the traditional way of life.
Your Majesty, the living example of this African tale is amaHlubi; the unsung
heroes who originated in the slopes of Ngcwazi, in Middledrift district between
King Williams’ Town and Alice. The world knows that your people were moved
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from Alice in the Eastern Cape to Khaya Khulu, Pilansberg area in Rustenberg
district on the 20 September 1924.
On your arrival here, the then Western
Transvaal, you purchased your own land to accommodate 400 families of your
people on the farm called Rhenosterboom for 1 755 pounds and you agreed to
rent the other half for 100 pounds per annum. You agreed to this because at
that time what was important to you was the safety, welfare and prosperity of
your people.
Today you celebrate that victory as one of your fundamental
heritage of the generations to come.
Immediately after your settlement in this land, your ancestor Zibi and his people
initiated the Rustenberg Farm Scheme offering shares in the farm for his people
for 50 pounds per person. This was part of the empowerment of the people.
What we call today black economic empowerment.
Your foresightedness is
helping the African National Congress today in its policy formulation process on
how to empower black people, especially Africans.
Ofcourse, the scheme was opposed by the white Apartheid government; as our
system of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) is opposed the
white monopoly capital and the Democratic Alliance (DA). We know that your
scheme was opposed on the grounds that no personal title to the land could be
issued for the Natives.
Like many other Kings and Chiefs suffered under the repression of Apartheid
Colonialism; the nation is aware that you also suffered humiliation when Zibi lost
his title as a Chief and became a Headman; but later re-appointed as Chief with
civil and criminal jurisdiction over the community.
You are aware that this system of chop and changing by the apartheid colonial
regime was not sustainable. They were achieved through a litany of dubious
acts that are too numerous to list here today. However, our people led by Kings
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and Chiefs did not fold their arms, but mobilized society to challenge the system
whose main objective, amongst others, was to divide our people and plunder our
resources such as land, minerals and other strategic resources that are beneath
our rich South African soil.
As Inkosi Phatekile Holomisa; aaaDilizintaba; in his book titled: A Double Edge
Sword; once said:
“The well known Nine Wars of Resistance or Xhosa Wars, were all fought
in defence of the land against the pillaging mobs of colonial armies and
our forces were under the command of the great traditional leaders of
Eastern Cape part of South Africa … when the time came for our people to
realize and accept that spears and sticks and shields could be no match to
the sophisticated guns and deadly canons of the colonialists; the people of
South Africa, under the leadership of the educated elite of the African
community gathered together in Bloemfontein on January 8, 1912 to form
the African National Congress (ANC)”.
Ladies and Gentlemen, amaHlubi were also in the forefront of the people’s
struggles for freedom and liberty in South Africa. Onbehalf of his people, Zibi
attended several meetings and conferences such as Governor-Generals’ Native
Conference between 1923 and 1927.
At these meeting with high powered
delegations, Zibi expressed sharp opinions on the land question and made whites
to account on the lack of freedom of Africans. These opinions were based on
land ownership and the effects of the Natives Land Act of 1913.
On this Heritage Day, the people of the Republic should pause and pay a fitting
tribute to our common history of opposition to domination; a history of protest
and heroism; and a history of refusal to submit to tyranny.
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The 1994 democratic breakthrough is an honour to our greatest heroes. The
Heritage Day is an honour and a celebration to the road traversed by amaHlubi
from the South-East of the Republic to the North West of our country. It is the
honour to the great warriors and nation builders like King Shaka, King
Moshoeshoe, King Hintsa, King Silamba, Chief Bambatha, King Dingane, Chief
Nyabela, Chief David Witbooi of amaNama, Chief Albert Luthuli, Chief Rolihlahla
Mandela and Chief Shadrack Fuba Zibi.
Thank you!
END!
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