South Africa Abolishes Six Traditional Monarchies

South African President Jacob Zuma announced that six of the thirteen kingdoms in his country will be no more. He said Thursday that those monarchies were created during apartheid in order for those kings and queens to support the white-led government.

AFP/File/Rajesh Jantilal

“The apartheid regime created its own traditional leadership at the expense of authentic leadership in some communities,” Zuma said.

“It was how those in charge divided and disunited people,” he said. “We urge all communities to accept the findings in the spirit of correcting the wrongs of the past, and as part of the country’s nation-building efforts.”

Those six kingdoms will end when their rulers die. They include: the central province of Free State’s Batlokwa ba Mota and the Bakwena baMopeli monarchies, the Eastern Cape’s AmaRharhabe and the Amampondo ase-Nyandeni, and the Ndzundza Mabhoko kingdom in the eastern Mpumalanga province. The kingdom of AbaThembu base-Rhode’s King already died, and so that monarchy will be ending shortly.

The Xhosa and Zulu Kingdoms will remain.

Source: AFP, AP