By Ndabezinhle Sibiya

Grief has gripped the nation following the untimely passing on of His Majesty – King Goodwill KaBhekuzulu.

The entire Zululand District where KwaKhethomthandayo Palace is located look like it is going to implode under the weight of so much emotions from local residents.

I can only imagine the severity of the pain that the Zulu Royal Family is experiencing at a loss so great that no man can heal.  Isilo SamaBandla is the direct descendant of the great warriors who founded the nation that is known all over the world. 

Zulu Kings inducted a strong sense of national pride and made their people believe in themselves in the face of adversity.

Comments on social media and messages of condolences that have been outpouring from different parts of the country - and from the diplomatic community are an indication of the impact that His Majesty made since his Coronation in 1971.

As a dark cloud hangs over KwaZulu-Natal, I am imagining the feelings of traditional leaders, elected public representatives, leaders of society, captains of industry and government officials who worked very closely with His Majesty.

Since I received the tragic news in the early hours of Friday morning, I have been reflecting on the lifetime experience of being moulded and guided by His Majesty. There are many other colleagues in all spheres of government who can relate their personal experiences of how their lives were touched by Isilo.

I recall that in 2009, few days before the people of KwaZulu-Natal witnessed the inauguration of the fifth Premier and the second Premier from the African National Congress since the dawn of our new democracy, Premier-elect Dr Zweli Mkhize requested his private office to set up a meeting with the King.

Dr Mkhize, felt that it was important to meet His Majesty before his inauguration which was held on the 11th May 2009. This inauguration marked the conclusion of an electoral process that was started when the people of this province cast their votes on the 22nd April.

Importantly, Dr Mkhize wanted to use this meeting to start the drafting of the State of the Province Address.

The meeting, which took place at Thokazi Royal Lodge, had specific objectives.

Firstly, to seek inputs and guidance from the King;

Secondly, to present KZN Government’s Programme of Action during the term of office ending in 2014;

Thirdly, to discuss the setting up of the Royal Household Trust;

Fourthly, to discuss the management of communication of the work of the Monarch as an institution.

This meeting was attended by Cyril Xaba, who was later appointed as Head of Secretariat of the KZN Planning Commission and Member of the Royal Household Trust. Plans for the establishment of both the trust and the KZN Planning Commission were also discussed in this meeting and agreed upon.

It was in this historic meeting wherein His Majesty offered to work with members of the executive council under the leadership of the Premier “to augment the work of Provincial Government".

Since that meeting, Isilo SamabaBandla as the peacemaker, a farmer and a promoter for the creation of sustainable livelihoods, attended most government events. He always offered his undivided attention to various Members of the Executive Council and increased the appeal and uptake of government's programmes of service delivery.

One remains privileged to have been part of this journey and to celebrate many anniversaries of His Majesty at the throne.

Though, a dark cloud is hanging over this province, we have the opportunity to look back with pride at the achievements of this province both economically and politically under the guidance of uBhejane phum’ esiQiwini.

The week of mourning gives the people of this province the opportunity to acknowledge the critical role the institution of Monarch has played throughout the intervening years.

Many people will recall that when political intolerance threatened the fragile peace that had been achieved after years of political violence, His Majesty was always available to guide elected leaders as a peacemaker. He had a rare ability of bringing leaders of all political parties together and preached his messages of peace and tolerance without taking sides.  

Isilo always sought to make all leaders of society understand that in everything they do they had to put the interests of ordinary people first.

He used all platforms to make elected public representatives understand that their main focus, as leaders in government and outside government, was to eradicate poverty and to ensure that children have access to education and that the majority of people had access to water and electricity.

At every occasion, His Majesty emphasized the need for the acceleration of the delivery of services to all people especially to rural communities.

During the official opening of the KZN Legislature, he often stated that ordinary people should be made an integral part of the every government programme of action and not spectators because he believed that this is the essence of democracy.

He often pointed that, the people of KwaZulu-Natal should stand together to fight crime, the proliferation of drugs in schools and communities and eradicate fraud and corruption especially in our municipalities.

Fight against HIV, AIDS AND TB

The medical fraternity, health, HIV and Aids activists commended Isilo for his contribution towards the fight against HIV and Aids.

In the meeting to commemorate the 12th Anniversary of the Partnership for the Fight Against HIV and Aids, His Majesty announced that he wanted to continue to use cultural events such as Reed Dance and Umkhosi Wokweshwama to rally traditional leaders and the entire nation against this pandemic.

Many people will recall that it was during Umkhosi Wokweshwama on the 4th December 2009 that he announced the revival of circumcision amongst young men. He made the announcement within the context of the fight against HIV and AIDS. He stressed that circumcision would assist in the fight against the pandemic although on its own does not prevent the spread of sexual transmitted diseases.

He indicated that circumcision had been practiced by many African communities but it was however discontinued by King Shaka because it was associated with delays amongst the warriors who spent many months in the veld when he was in the process of building a standing Zulu army.

In his speech His Majesty said Umkhosi Wokweshwama coincided with the Campaign Against the Abuse of Women and Children. He called on men to stand up against the scourge.

Since that announcement, traditional leaders have been very instrumental in ensuring the success of Medical Male Circumcision in terms of mobilizing izinduna, amagosa and communities in support of MMC camps. 

These camps enabled traditional leaders and health professionals to provide health education and other life skills to the young men – helping them reduce teenage pregnancy at schools and avoid contracting HIV and Aids in a long run.

Isilo believed that government needed traditional leaders as their social partners to ensure the creation of a better life for all the people of this province. His views were that the Constitution recognized the functions of traditional leaders in terms of the customary law and customs, and provide guiding principles for the allocation of further roles and functions in identified areas by national or provincial government through legislation or other measures.

During the installation of traditional leaders, His Majesty used this platform to rally traditional leaders to lead in the war against poverty, TB, HIV and AIDS. They were encouraged to ensure that support and treatment was given to people with TB in order to reduce defaulters and ensure completion of treatment. In order to ensure the prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus, traditional leaders were asked to ensure that women were encouraged to access family planning services.  

As a result of the tireless work of His Majesty, government continue to work with traditional leaders and traditional healers to achieve the objectives of the HCT campaign which is aimed at reducing HIV infections as well as ensuring that eligible HIV positive people are provided with ART.

Ensuring the fight against poverty

On the poverty alleviation front, His Majesty ensured that traditional leaders were part of government’s One Home One Garden campaign, a programme aimed at ensuring food security. This programme was launched during the International Nelson Mandela Day on the 18th July 2009.

Under this programme, government utilized 100 hectares of land that His Majesty asked from traditional leaders to be made available for farming.

He supported Operation Sukuma Sakhe and encouraged the appointment of Members of the Executive Council as champions of rural development in districts. This improved the level of inter-governmental cooperation.

He argued that rural development has to be comprehensive, all-encompassing and not just about agriculture, communal gardens, women’s sewing and small poultry projects. He believed that rural development should be about creating sustainable economies that will absorb labour and reduce migration to urban centres in search of a better life.

In view of the recession that hit the country in 2008 and spiraling food prices which threatened food security, government identified agriculture as a catalyst for economic development.  His Majesty supported government’s key focus on building self-sufficiency in agricultural production. He often convened meetings with the Premier and his executive council wherein he offered his support for the land reform programmes.

He wanted government to create access to local and international markets for small- scale farmers, including agricultural co-operatives in rural areas across the province. He encouraged government to empower emerging farmers to use Dube Trade Port Agri Processing Facility to export agricultural products to international markets.

He was concerned that many emerging farmers had been driven to bankruptcy by lack of farming skills and experience. He cited as the cause for the high mortality rate of emerging farmers - the high cost of inputs such as fuel, fertilizers, electricity and non-availability of finance for farming operations. He was convinced that the collapse of emerging farmers was rarely the lack of commitment and love for farming but it was the issues I have just highlighted.

As a result of the guidance from His Majesty, a Special Purpose Vehicle, known as the Agribusiness Development Agency (ADA) was established by KZN Government in 2011 to support emerging black commercial farmers and rescue the land reform projects from collapse.

The agency was tasked to assist farmers, reduce the skills gap that the land reform process had inadvertently created and negotiate refinancing mechanisms to save the farms from sinking into debt and being repossessed by the banks. A working agreement was secured with the Land Bank which had financed most of the farms. The bank had to be persuaded from liquidating the operating farmers and repossessing the property. 

Our Culture and Heritage

As a custodian of our culture and heritage, Isilo Sama-Bandla presided over cultural activities which served as basis for promotion of our strong character and identity as the people of this province. These events stimulated tourists flow annually from all over the world and generated much needed job opportunities for the people of this province, especially in rural areas.

As he always pointed out it is through the acceptance and promotion of our culture and heritage that the people of KwaZulu-Natal can achieve harmony and live side by side as one people and one nation.

In one event he stated that the collective acceptance of our heritage and symbols will help us define our next steps in the fight for the creation of a strong and united nation.

On the same issue of the acceptance of our heritage and symbols - in 2010 the provincial government unveiled a Multi-Media Centre, a centre built at the precincts of King Dingane’s uMgungundlovu resident at Mkhumbane Valley – Emakhosini.  

This place is known as the birth place of the Zulu nation. Incidentally, this is the place where the Voortrekker leader, Piet Retief and more than sixty Voortrekkers were massacred by Dingane on the 6th of February – ten months before the bloody conflict of Ncome in December 1838.

This media centre is of strategic importance to the people of this province as it serves as a cultural and heritage attraction. It was constructed by this government to preserve and restore the history of the Zulu Kings which have been largely neglected by the past government who feared the inspirational value of such memorials for the oppressed communities.

King Dingane, Cetshwayo and Dinuzulu lie buried away from the Valley of Emakhosini. It is those three kings whose reign was seriously impacted upon by the arrival of the European settler regimes.  For King Dingane the encounter with the Voorterkkers changed the course of history and his fate.

The subsequent clashes and bloodshed between the Zulu warriors and Voortrekkers resulted in the designation of 16 December as Dingaan se dag and subsequently the Day of the Covenant or Gelofte dag for the Afrikaner community.  Under the new democratic government, 16 December is now known as Reconciliation Day.

We continue to celebrate this day with His Majesty always available to promote messages of peace, reconciliation and acceptance of all communities as contributors in the political, economic, social and other forms of development of our society.

Isilo undertook both national and international trips as a business ambassador to KZN. He built relationships with several Heads of states and international community.  More importantly, Isilo received invitations from several Heads of states, Royalty and Traditional Leaders from different countries across the world.

The Monarch has been hosted by and has been host to Heads of State, Royal family members, religious leaders and business leaders of international stature from different parts of the world.

His Majesty hosted members of Royal Household families as well as several traditional leaders from countries such as Ghana, Code d’ voire and Uganda to name but a few. These visits reflect the respect that many people of the world have for the institution and opened up possibilities of new relations for the benefit of the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

Many potential investors have been addressed by the Monarch both inside our country and abroad resulting in their desire to initiate investment programmes in KwaZulu-Natal.

Bayede Hlanga Lomhlabathi !!!!!!!!

Ndabezinhle Sibiya is the Spokesperson for KZN Finance MEC: Nomusa Dube-Ncube. He writes in his personal capacity .