Jongisilo Pokwana ka Menziwa Insight Disputes for kingship also part of tradition
“Without disputes, claims and counterclaims, you must know it’s not traditional leadership.”
Whenever I hear people panicking or even amazed at the chaos and disputes that always arise, especially at the passing of inkosi, I always go back to digest these words by my late grandfather inkosi Gwebindlala ka Menziwa.
My grandfather, a keen student of history from the wise school of oral tradition, (1904 — 1996) was 33 when the unthinkable happened in Emampondweni.
In 1939 the news spread across the country that the King of Amampondo, ukumkani Mandlonke of Marhelane of Sigcau of Mqikela of Faku, had taken his life owing to ill health.
If this is the accurate version as told by my grandfather, this was an ultimate sacrifice he must have thought necessary to make so as to save the image of his kingdom from the stigma attached to his ailment at the time.
Little did King Mandlonke know that his passing would spark a generational dispute arising from self-serving conflicting versions advanced by different factions within his family on the circumstances surrounding his wife, whom he had left with no heir, and how she then begot Zwelidumile, the father of the recently departed king.
King Faku was the son of Ngqungqushe. It is Faku who begot the two sons who then later headed the two Amampondo branches which became known as Eastern Pondoland and Western Pondoland. I do not wish to discuss, for now, the colonial hand in this split, but historians know the role of white settler government in weakening our royal houses by various means including deposing reigning traditional leaders or orchestrating the split in the royal family.
King Mandlonke had two noteworthy brothers, Botha from the right-hand house and Nelson from the minor house. The story has it that at the installation of his brother inkosi Botha as King of Amampondo, it must have been Nkosi Victor Poto Ndamase who sounded a warning to Amampondo royal family members, urging them not to evoke the old tradition of ukungena umfazi, meaning no men from the royal family should take over the wife of King Mandlonke, “because she will give birth to a king”.
True to the core of the concern by Nkosi Poto, it was Mandlonke’s younger brother Nelson who soon got close to the queen and the queen begot Zwelidumile, the father of King Zanozuko. My grandfather didn’t recall much about the minority of Nkosi Zwelidumile, save to say that when he became older he started claiming the throne of the kingdom on the basis that he was son of King Mandlonke by virtue of being born to the wife of the late king (born from a seed from within the royal family).
It is important to note that this reasoning by Zwelidumile was on point in terms of culture. Indeed no-one could legitimately claim to be senior to him, especially as it was clear there was no strong opposition to the fact that he was born from the queen and a seed had come from Nelson who was an unquestioned son of King Marhelane.
Nkosi Zwelidumile passed on without the claim being won in his favour. But this was during the reign of separatist KD Matanzima (chief minister of Transkei from 1963) and his cohorts who ushered in a reign of terror at the expense of the broader institution of traditional leadership, working with his friends in the apartheid government, deposing traditional leaders, demoting some and replacing others with their younger brothers.
It was a reign of terror and it could be very violent. Being jailed without a charge was common and in line with the neurotic while settler colonial government. Zwelidumile stood no chance under those circumstances, unless the royal house of Faku would in its wisdom decide to do what was right.
Kumkani Zanozuko Sigcau rose to prominence when they launched the claim for the kingship with the Nhlapo Commission, and it became clear that a window had been opened for a more sensible platform to ventilate the matter.
Despite many conflicting versions of the succession disputes from within the House of King Marhelane, court interdicts and counter-interdicts, the matter was finally settled and in 2013 and Zanozuko emerged victorious even though his reign was rather complex given the security concerns which prevented him from normal life.
This brings me to some of the things that transpired at the funeral ofzanozuko.
Suffice it to say that the background I am painting is sufficient for all to expect another protracted dispute about who should ascend the throne. The Sigcaus are no exception. The remarks by Kumkani Ndamase ka Ndamase at the funeral, in which he saw it fit to assert himself as the sole ruler of Nyandeni, is an example here. Naturally as traditional leaders we are territorial — just like the lions in the bush we want to not only mark our territory but to assert it.
On this Sigcau royal family matter, I indeed expect a return to court, and there might be three or more contestants but only one will emerge victorious and the logical thing to do is for them to look within the descendants of Nkosi Zwelidumile.