RESIDENTS of Ingwavuma in northern KZN feel that they will always be in debt to Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi for what he did for them.
They claim that if it wasn’t for Buthelezi’s courage to fight against the apartheid regime, they wouldn't be South African residents.
Ingwavuma is a massive block of territory south of the Mozambique border and formed a considerable part of the KZN homeland, home to the Tembe, Mngomezulu, Mathenjwa and Nyawo communities.
But in 1982, King Sobhuza II and the South African Government agreed to hand Ingwavuma to the then Swaziland.
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The arrangement was allegedly made in secret without consulting the residents, and that saw Buthelezi fighting with everything he got to stop Ingwavuma from being under Swaziland.
For that reason, the Jozini Local Municipality has set aside R1 million to erect Buthelezi’s statue in the area as a sign of honouring him.
One of the residents, Khulubale Mngomezulu (64) said: “I feel like we don’t thank Buthelezi enough for what he did. We would have been Swaziland residents without our will. We owe him big time, and I am over the moon that the municipality decided to honour him in this manner.”
Jozini’s first mayor, Thembeni KaMadlopha-Mthethwa, said when she heard about the plan to honour Buthelezi, she was over the moon because most people wanted to do that for him but could not because of financial backgrounds.
Jozini Mayor Naye Mathe said the municipality budgeted R1 Million to erect Buthelezi’s statue.
“If Buthelezi didn’t fight tooth and nail to prevent Swatis from taking our land, people of Ingwavuma would have been unable to come freely to our town because the border gate would have been erected at the Jozini Bridge,” he said.
The event will take place in May.
Daily Sun tried to get comment from Buthelezi’s team but they had not responded by the time of publishing.
