Durban - The Royal Household Trust has written to the Human Rights Commission requesting complaint submissions that formed the basis of the commission’s investigation of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s speech about the deporting of foreigners.
The commission is probing the speech he gave during a moral regeneration event in Pongola two weeks ago. In his speech, the king called for the government to send foreigners back home.
In a letter written to the commission, the acting chief executive of the trust, Bonginkosi Qunta, said: “We request all such information written or otherwise forming the basis of the complaint and the resultant investigation. We may stress the importance of access to such information because it would enable His Majesty in composition of the committee of those he appoints as his eyes and ears.”
The commission’s spokesman, Isaac Mangena, confirmed that they had received the letter from the royal household.
“As part of the investigation, we will notify the other party (the king) of the allegations against them,” he said.
Asked for comment on how the public had reacted towards the king’s speech, the trust’s chairman, Judge Jerome Ngwenya, said he was unable “at present” to comment, until The Mercury sent him a recording.
He said the speech he was in possession of did not have a section in which the king, as reported, said “all foreigners must pack their belongings and return to their countries”.
“All information I have in this regard does not support or confirm this reporting.”
The Mercury has a recording of the speech in which the king said foreigners must go back to their home countries.
On Sunday, King Zwelithini spoke again about foreigners at the Amarula Ceremony, known as Umkhosi Wanganu, at KwaKhangela Royal Palace at Nongoma.
According to the SABC, the king was unrepentant about his remarks about foreigners. He said it was unacceptable that there were almost 5 million foreigners in the country – a ticking bomb that could explode at any time.
The SABC quoted the king as saying yesterday: “Right now we are sitting on a fire. I know I have been accused by others for announcing this, but I am not turning back. I still repeat this, I will not withdraw. Nobody has no home. We are tired of criminals, we are tired of people who sell drugs and sometimes our children are being used to sell drugs. I will not allow this as Zulu king, no matter what. There is no turning back.”
The king also called on the Swazi people to work together with South Africa in stopping foreigners from using the border between the countries as an illegal point of entry to South Africa.
“You people of Swaziland must work together because they use Swaziland to get inside the country.,” the SABC quoted him as saying.
The Mercury