The King’s Speech
King Goodwill Zwelithini has just delivered another pearler at a public gathering. Terence Pillay weighs in on the matter.
I can never understand why it is that every time King Goodwill Zwelithini opens his mouth, utter garbage pours out of it. The latest reports of this man’s loose lipped nonsense have made headlines both here and abroad. Apparently the King praised the Nationalist government and apartheid during an event in Nongoma at which he was speaking.
The article that I read that sparked the controversy said that Zwelithini credited the Nationalist Party with building the strongest economy and army on the continent, and saying that the advent of “this so-called democracy” saw black people who “loved to use matches” burn down infrastructure built during Apartheid.
“The economy that we are now burning down. You do not want to build on what you had inherited. You are going to find yourselves on the wrong side of history,” said Zwelithini.
“You don’t want to use them (buildings), you say this is apartheid infrastructure. Your leaders are occupying buildings where Apartheid laws were made to oppress you,” the king said.
He also fondly remembered the respect he received during Apartheid.
“The Afrikaners respected me. I don’t know how it happened that the Afrikaners respect me so much,” he said.
Firstly, one would assume this man has a minder or a manager or at the very least a speech writer with a modicum of intelligence.
In a News 24 article, the royal household spokesperson Prince Thulani Zulu said that the king was quoted out of context.
“He said he was born in 1948 and he had lived through apartheid and he knew the good and the bad of the system. He said there were good and bad things that were done during apartheid and he was reflecting [on] some of those issues.”
For me, this is nonsense. He either said it or he didn’t. And if memory and history serves us well, wasn’t this the pitiful excuse the last time he spewed drivel and was charged with inciting the very violent xenophobic attacks. But he was exonerated by the South African Human Rights Commission for this.
And so he takes license again and continues to speak with impunity.
So former DA shadow minister for police, Dianne Kohler Barnard, was sanctioned quite heavily a few months ago, and in fact demoted from her position because she reposted a picture that said something about things being better under apartheid.
Everyone lambasted her for this, myself included. And as well they should have. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable. People who suffered under apartheid bayed for blood and in the end Barnard admitted to bringing her party into disrepute and was dealt with.
Why aren’t the same people screaming blue murder now? Just because he is a monarch, does it mean that he is immune to sanction? Or does the fact that he controls the votes of some three million people, makes government turn a deaf ear to these utterances. That’s what I like to call a double standard.
It would seem that once you reach a certain status in society like being the head of the royal household or the head of a company commanding a huge budget, then you feel like you can just say whatever you want.
Take Donald Trump for example... The American Republican presidential hopeful has provoked condemnation from across the political spectrum, by saying Muslims should be banned from entering the US.
Republicans, Democrats, Muslim leaders, the UN and foreign leaders criticised the call as dangerous and divisive.
Trump said many Muslims nursed a "hatred" towards America.
He said they should be banned "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
Trump, who has previously called for surveillance against mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the U.S, made his latest controversial call in a news release. His message comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected ISIS sympathizers and the day after President Barack Obama asked the country not to "turn against one another" out of fear.
So what is the end game? Should these people in perceived power be allowed to get away with these kinds of foolish diatribes?
You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.
Sources: The Star, Times Live, News 24, BBC World, CNN
The article that I read that sparked the controversy said that Zwelithini credited the Nationalist Party with building the strongest economy and army on the continent, and saying that the advent of “this so-called democracy” saw black people who “loved to use matches” burn down infrastructure built during Apartheid.
“The economy that we are now burning down. You do not want to build on what you had inherited. You are going to find yourselves on the wrong side of history,” said Zwelithini.
“You don’t want to use them (buildings), you say this is apartheid infrastructure. Your leaders are occupying buildings where Apartheid laws were made to oppress you,” the king said.
He also fondly remembered the respect he received during Apartheid.
“The Afrikaners respected me. I don’t know how it happened that the Afrikaners respect me so much,” he said.
Firstly, one would assume this man has a minder or a manager or at the very least a speech writer with a modicum of intelligence.
In a News 24 article, the royal household spokesperson Prince Thulani Zulu said that the king was quoted out of context.
“He said he was born in 1948 and he had lived through apartheid and he knew the good and the bad of the system. He said there were good and bad things that were done during apartheid and he was reflecting [on] some of those issues.”
For me, this is nonsense. He either said it or he didn’t. And if memory and history serves us well, wasn’t this the pitiful excuse the last time he spewed drivel and was charged with inciting the very violent xenophobic attacks. But he was exonerated by the South African Human Rights Commission for this.
And so he takes license again and continues to speak with impunity.
So former DA shadow minister for police, Dianne Kohler Barnard, was sanctioned quite heavily a few months ago, and in fact demoted from her position because she reposted a picture that said something about things being better under apartheid.
Everyone lambasted her for this, myself included. And as well they should have. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable. People who suffered under apartheid bayed for blood and in the end Barnard admitted to bringing her party into disrepute and was dealt with.
Why aren’t the same people screaming blue murder now? Just because he is a monarch, does it mean that he is immune to sanction? Or does the fact that he controls the votes of some three million people, makes government turn a deaf ear to these utterances. That’s what I like to call a double standard.
It would seem that once you reach a certain status in society like being the head of the royal household or the head of a company commanding a huge budget, then you feel like you can just say whatever you want.
Take Donald Trump for example... The American Republican presidential hopeful has provoked condemnation from across the political spectrum, by saying Muslims should be banned from entering the US.
Republicans, Democrats, Muslim leaders, the UN and foreign leaders criticised the call as dangerous and divisive.
Trump said many Muslims nursed a "hatred" towards America.
He said they should be banned "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
Trump, who has previously called for surveillance against mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the U.S, made his latest controversial call in a news release. His message comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected ISIS sympathizers and the day after President Barack Obama asked the country not to "turn against one another" out of fear.
So what is the end game? Should these people in perceived power be allowed to get away with these kinds of foolish diatribes?
You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.
Sources: The Star, Times Live, News 24, BBC World, CNN