Plans to realign salaries and perks of all kings and queens to be on par with Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s are in the pipeline.
However, co-operative governance & traditional affairs deputy minister Obed Bapela told the Daily Dispatch on the sidelines of the traditional leaders summit in Mpekweni Beach Resort near Port Alfred on Friday that it might take at least 20 years to ensure every monarch received the same budget as Zwelithini, whom other monarchs have dubbed “super king” because of his huge budget.
For the current financial year, the Zulu Kingdom’s annual budget is R65.8m excluding Zwelithini’s R1.2m annual salary.
Other kings and queens do not have a budget.
Bapela announced that the national department was currently revising the 2013 Framework on the Provision of Tools of Trade for Traditional Leaders Act and had developed a draft handbook for enabling resources for traditional leaders.
“This will ensure that there is standardisation on the provision of the tools of trade for the institution of traditional leadership.
“The final draft handbook will be presented to MinMec for approval by the end of March 2019 and subsequently to the remuneration commission for consideration during the review of the traditional leadership dispensation.
“It is envisaged that the implementation of the handbook will start in the 2019-2020 financial year,” he said.
He said traditional leaders had complained of being treated differently by the state.
“The handbook will be universal to all provinces to subscribe to,” said Bapela.
The KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office is responsible for supporting Zwelithini and his royal family‚ the royal household trust, which was established to make the Zulu royal family self-sustainable.
KZN premier Willies Mchunu announced in 2018 that his office would continue to support the royal household trust‚ whose responsibilities include the upkeep of the king’s eight palaces and farms‚ tuition for his children‚ transportation and medical care for the family.
Bapela said, however, that other monarchs would not be able to receive the same hefty benefits as did Zwelithini.
“But over a period of time, depending on how our economy performs [we will]. One day maybe in 20 years’ time we might arrive there for every king in SA to have the same benefit as him,” Bapela said. Meanwhile, traditional leaders walked out of the summit on Thursday, saying they would not be addressed by provincial Cogta head of department Gabisile Gumbi-Masilela, whom they accused of refusing to meet with them.
But in an interview, Gumbi-Masilela denied that she had ignored the leadership. She said when she joined the department, she had told traditional leaders during road shows that she would avail herself to them but she could not “drop whatever I have on the diary [to meet them]”...