President Cyril Ramaphosa has again made an attempt to clarify the meaning behind a photo of him kneeling next to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini that surfaced on social media recently.
The photo shows the president kneeling next to the Zulu king, while they both look into a book.
Ramaphosa has previously expressed how the photo was misinterpreted. “Outraged”, the presidency said the photo was taken last November, while the president was still deputy.
Ramaphosa was, according to the presidency, showing the Zulu king his book on Ankole cattle. Addressing journalists after his trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates this week, Ramaphosa again defended the controversial image, according to the Sowetan.
He said it was laughable to interpret the photo to suggest he was kneeling before Zwelithini.
According to the president, people should say “look at the president, he is showing the king his book on cattle”, as opposed to negative aspersions.
The image began doing the rounds on social media after Ramaphosa met with Zwelithini to discuss concerns around the Ingonyama Trust.
The photo has people questioning if Ramaphosa was reinforcing the stereotype that Zulu people consider themselves better than other tribes.
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