Traditional leaders strongly oppose new land use act
SPLUMA - traditional leaders must focus on moral issues and not concern themselves with issues of land use
LIMPOPO – Deputy Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders, Hosi Mudavula (Eric Chauke), expressed concerns over a new law, the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA), which was introduced recently by government to control land use.
He called on traditional leaders to unite in the fight against the act. “This new law states that traditional leaders must now focus on issues of moral authority, while the issue of land acquisition is under the authority of someone else,” he said.
He continued, saying the new law is unfair toward tradition leaders as it takes away their power to handle land allocations. “It is worrying that the land left to us by our ancestors will be divided among us by SPLUMA instead of us handling it internally,” Mudavula said.
“As traditional leaders, we cannot ignore this issue. He continued, saying they will not use force to fight the issue but ask for it to be dealt with amicably. “While we understand that we live in a democratic country, this new act allows government to take what belongs to us and we will not let that happen,” he said.
Mudavula also touched on the current infighting among Tsonga speakers on who is the rightful king of the Tsonga tribe who are also known as Shangaans (Machangani), urging traditional leaders to not be greedy and to allow one person to represent the Tsonga tribe as king.
“If we all want to be kings at the same time it won’t work, let us sit together and allow only one person to lead the people,” he said. This comes after President Jacob Zuma refused to confirm Hosi Eric Nxumalo, the descendant of Hosi Nghunghunyani as the king of the Tsonga tribe in 2015, a situation which left the Tsonga tribe as the only group without a king in the country.
thoko@nmgroup.co.za
