Pretoria - The AmaQwathi Royal Family have distanced themselves from plans by Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa and the Engcobo Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape to rename the municipality after former ANC president Dr AB Xuma tomorrow.
Last night, the royal family and the Eastern Cape MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zolile Williams, were locked in a tense meeting after the royal family had expressed their disgust at the decision.
The MEC’s spokesperson, Pheello Oliphant, said the name changing was the initiative of the Engcobo Local Municipality which had petitioned the South African Geographical Names Council under Minister Mthethwa.
He said the royal family had not been consulted about it. Mthethwa also confirmed the royal family’s complaint but couldn’t give further details.
Yesterday, the royal family were adamant that they would not recognise the event.
The AmaQwathi Royal Council executive secretary Levy Sipho Dalasile said the Engcobo Local Municipality consisted of 64 administrative units – 40 of those are controlled by AmaQwathi while the remaining belong to AbaThembu chiefs.
Dalasile said they only became aware of the change after seeing posters on street poles in their town.
“Let it be known that AmaQwathi and everybody who pledges allegiance to these proud and valiant people who fought atrocious wars against colonialism in all its forms and manifestations that we hereby distance and disassociate ourselves from the renaming of Engcobo Municipality to ‘AB Xuma Municipality’.
“If we were consulted, the ceremony would have been about the royal founders of Ngcobo or any of his illustrious predecessors or successors, not ‘AB Xuma’, whose great-grandfathers sought refuge in our land,” Dalasile said.
Pretoria News