The trouble with Heritage Day
On September 24, SA celebrates Heritage Day. But how did a day that started off commemorating King Shaka’s death end up being a highlight of the retail calendar?
22 September 2022 - 05:00
On September 24 1954, a young Mangosuthu Buthelezi organised a large Zulu cultural festival at KwaDukuza (Stanger), in present-day KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The highlight of the festivities was the unveiling of a memorial to King Shaka, who’d supposedly been killed there on September 24 1828.
By the early 1970s, Buthelezi’s Inkatha — predecessor to the IFP — had succeeded in getting “Shaka Day” declared a provincial holiday...
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