Terror in the name of tradition

SINDISO MNISI | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Feb 26 2010, Mail and Guardian, reports -

A firm believer in the development of customary law by the people, not just their leaders, I fear that ordinary poor, rural citizens stand little chance of being heard as the juggernaut of ever-increasing institutional support fortifying the powerful position of traditional leaders tramples their rights while putatively protecting “custom and tradition”.

We now know 2010 will be a big year for “traditional” law. The budget vote of the cooperative governance and traditional affairs department provides that R31.4-million will go to the National House of Traditional Leaders and to the establishment of a new department of traditional affairs in November 2010. The government is clearly serious about promoting the role and place of the institution of traditional leadership.

Several recent and pending legal developments also promise a significant year for traditional law. In October the North Gauteng High Court handed down judgment in the challenge by four communities to the controversial Communal Land Rights Act of 2003, finding that 17 subsections of the Act were unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court will now hear the matter on March 2 and 3.

In 2008 the Traditional Courts Bill aroused community resistance to its possible unconstitutionality. Parliament allowed the Bill to lapse before last year’s elections, but the new portfolio committee on justice revived it in July 2009. The committee has to decide if and how it will consult with the 17 million-strong rural population affected by the Bill. (The Bill itself states that the justice department drafted it in collaboration with the National House of Traditional Leaders.)

Secession

Amendments were made in November to the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act of 2003—but there was controversy over both their content and the fact that MPs were given little time to consider the 50 pages of changes. These concern the recognition of kings and queens and their councils, as well as principal traditional communities, leaders and councils; the establishment of traditional subcouncils; the remuneration of non-traditional leader members of councils; the definition of the commission on traditional leadership; and the extension of time frames for converting traditional and community authorities into traditional councils.

Most topically, after the king of the amaThembu, Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, was sentenced in December to 15 years in jail for crimes against his subjects, the “kingdom” threatened to secede and take 60% of South Africa’s territory with it. Official notice of secession was issued on January 14 this year.

Derided by many, this development might be perceived to be irrelevant. Yet a close study of the king’s criminal acts, and his brazen claims about his authority, tells us something disturbing about the impact of the government’s support for particular versions of custom and authority.

Dalindyebo was found guilty of arson, kidnapping, defeating the ends of justice, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and culpable homicide. His subjects had supposedly committed offences in his jurisdiction and failed, when punished by him, to make amends as ordered. The king had imposed punishments including fines of R1 200 and six cows, arrest, being stripped naked and beaten with a sjambok (by the king), and a similar beating by community members that resulted in a boy’s death.

When one “accused” failed to pay his fine in full, Dalindyebo instructed that the family’s belongings be removed, set fire to the four rondavels, livestock and kraal on the property and took the accused’s family into captivity for a day, demanding that the accused leave his area. Another accused’s belongings and home suffered a similar fate. Most brutal was the punishment of the father whose son died from the community’s copycat beatings. He was fined 15 cows for the boy’s alleged offences—after his son’s death.
...
read more at http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-25-terror-in-the-name-of-tradition