VaTsonga in tribal fight over throne

The war that has been raging over who the king of the VaTsonga tribe is, seems to be far from over with Erick N’umalo vowing to continue his fight until he is declared the tribe’s rightful king, as his grandfather was.

N’umalo is a descendent of Hosi Nghunghunyani who, in his time, was widely considered the tribe’s king. In 2005 N’umalo applied to the Nhlapho commission to be declared the king of the VaTsonga tribe but was refused due to the opposition of his claim by some chiefs who took the matter to the Pretoria High Court and subsequently won their case.

Those opposing N’umalo are doing so on the grounds that Nghunghunyani was not their king, and therefore N’umalo is not either. Seemingly their argument is that Nghunghunyani only ruled in Mozambique and could therefore not be recognised in South Africa as the tribe’s king.

N’umalo reinforced his determination to fight to the bitter end during a celebratory event marking Nghunghunyani Day in Giyani on Saturday.

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“The fact that we lost in the Pretoria High Court does not faze us. We have lodged and appeal and now we’re going to meet them in Bloemfontein. If we lose our case there, we will proceed to Constitutional Court. We will never give up; we will use every resource at our disposal to fight for what is rightfully ours,” he said.

N’umalo said he was currently awaiting the court date for his appeal to be heard. He thanked everybody who contributed financially towards the matter. “Your contributions are much appreciated.”

Joe Maswanganyi, a researcher who has been researching Nghunghunyani’s Kingdom since 2005 when N’umalo launched his application for kingship, said there was indisputable evidence that Nghunghunyani was indeed the king of the entire tribe. “Those who claim that Nghunghunyani was only a king in Mozambique are mistaken. The Kruger fence was erected in 1926 and Nghunghunyani had been fighting wars all over the northern part of South Africa and the eastern part of Zimbabwe long before that fence was erected to separate Mozambique and South Africa,” he said.

Greater Giyani mayor Pat Hlungwani said the VaTsonga tribe had been without a king for a long time. “We will be happy if our government recognised the king of this tribe soon. It is not fair that the tribe is kingless when other tribes do have their own king,” he said.