Traditional leaders criticised
The national President of Contralesa, Kgosi Setlamorago Thobejane, is disturbed by divisions showing in the ranks of traditional leaders.
LIMPOPO – Speaking at the funeral of Hosi Nkomo the fifth on Saturday, Thobejane was angry that only a few traditional leaders had showed up at the funeral.
“As we lay to rest one of our own fallen heroes we were supposed to have come in numbers, but I can only see one or two traditional leaders present here,” he said.
“Today we were supposed to be sitting here, surrounding Hosi Mahumani and say: you’re part of us, we’re here to feel the same pain that you and your family feel, yet we’re not here,” he continued saying that was the kind of behaviour that was going to weaken the unity of traditional leaders in the future.
“We need to work together to ensure that the situation of people languishing in poverty in our areas changes, but that cannot happen when there’s no unity among our traditional leaders,” he went on urging traditional leaders to unite.
He warned traditional leaders not to allow themselves to be used by politicians for personal gain.
“All of us must know, that the moment we allow ourselves to be used for petty personal issues that supersede the unity of the institution, we’re weakening ourselves,” he said.
Meanwhile Thobejane revealed that Contralesa has, as of the end of July, embarked on consultations to find a way of correcting the current situation in the ruling party.
“All provinces including Limpopo should call provincials general council sittings to discuss the role of traditional leaders in the future of the ANC,” he said, adding that, the reason why he singled out ANC instead of other parties was because the party was formed out of traditional leaders.
“Looking at the ANC today we should be able to say what is it that we can do to correct the abnormality of the movement as we see it,” he said.
“If there’s no such, we should again be able to see if there is anything else that we can do to raise the people of South Africa like we did in 1912 when we gathered the people of South Africa in one common goal of fighting against struggle,” he continued appealing for unity among traditional leaders.
“The struggle in South Africa does not need to be waged in divided efforts. We need to be together in the fight against the enemy that is sitting on top of us,” he said.
