LETTER: A colonial bubble of robber barons
The end of hardship, my foot!
King Misuzulu Zulu has described this past weekend’s kraal entry ceremony as marking the end of hardship for the Zulu nation. I beg to differ.
Upwards of R100m a year of taxpayers’ money is allocated to the Zulu royal household, including maintenance of seven palaces at last count, with at least another no doubt to come; dowager queens, courtiers and staff; limousines, cars, drivers and bodyguards; maintenance for illegitimate children, private school fees, overseas flights and shopping trips; grossly unproductive farms and adjacent operations; untouchable cattle and underutilised farming equipment, broken machinery and farm buildings; salaries and copayments for hundreds of headmen and chiefs.
Living like aristocrats in a colonial bubble of robber barons, lords and ladies. Let them eat cake! Not to mention the deeply feudal Ingonyama Trust and how it feeds and shields the monster from the rule of law and any legal challenge, keeping the serfs and peasant class all in their places as they scrape the wasted land they’ll never own and their starving children beg for sweets and 20c on the side of the road, trying to stay alive with nothing to eat.
Bayete indeed!
Mark Lowe
Durban
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