EXTRACT
The king is thriving on disinformation, fear-mongering and, to some degree, people's ignorance.
It is disinformation to pretend that former president Kgalema Motlanthe has started a war against the king. Motlanthe was appointed by the speaker of the National Assembly to chair a high-level panel that was to review hundreds of pieces of legislation on a cross-section of issues.
The Ingonyama Trust Act is an imperfect piece of legislation. The panel found that its intention was that the land entrusted to the king would "later be surveyed into specific parcels and transferred to 'tribes and communities' in KwaZulu-Natal as delineated in terms of the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951".
This has never happened.
The king is benefiting from having smartly navigated the country's vulnerability before the 1994 elections. He wishes to continue benefiting from such an imperfect deal.