May 5, 2011
The reburial of King Goodwill Zwelithini's mother will cost the taxpayer R300 million.
eThekwini municipality spokesman Thembinkosi Ngcobo said the cost was justified as the project would benefit the community and promote the Zulu nation, the SABC reported on Wednesday.
The remains of Queen Thomozile Jezangani KaNdwandwe Zulu had been exhumed and would be reburied in Cato Manor on Saturday.
An unveiling and memorial ceremony would be held at the Umkhumbane Freedom Park on Sunday.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini
The king, the traditional leader of the country's largest ethnic group, had asked officials in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal to help him find the remains of his mother, Queen Thomozile Jezangani KaNdwandwe Zulu.
Zulu Impi's ( Warriors)
Zulu Princesses
SABC said officials plan to rebury her exhumed remains Saturday and hold an unveiling and memorial ceremony Sunday at a total cost to taxpayers of 300 million rand ($45 million, 30 million euros).
The final resting place of the queen, who died in the 1950s in her early 30s, had been unknown.
After a more than two-year search that was drawn out by legal red tape, officials from the province's largest city, Durban, announced they had found a grave containing the remains of a woman named Thoko Zulu and carried out DNA tests that identified her as the queen.
She will be reburied at a memorial site in the Durban neighbourhood of Cato Manor, where she lived at the end of her life and where the city plans to develop a cultural museum and heritage centre, officials said.
The king is the symbolic leader of South Africa's 11 million Zulus but has no formal political power.
He is a descendant of King Shaka, the 19th-century leader who is still revered for uniting a large swathe of the country as the Zulu nation and waging bloody battles against the region's British colonisers.
King Goodwill Zwelithini's Wives
Wannabee like the "White Ladies"
Reburial of Zulu queen 'a sensitive issue'
THE Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs should cover most of the cost for the exhumation and reburial of the remains of Queen Thomo Jezangani Ndwandwe, the DA said yesterday, describing the issue as "sensitive and emotional"
In a document that was tabled before the eThekwini Municipality's executive committee yesterday, it was recommended that the municipality and the provincial government jointly foot the Rl.5 million bill.
The queen, mother of King Goodwill Zwelithini, died in 1958 when Zwelithini, who has led the
Zulu nation for 40 years, was 10 years old. Zwelithini did not know where his mother had been
buried until recently.
DA caucus leader Tex Collins said: "This is a very sensitive and emotional issue and I don't have a problem with the exhuming and reburial of the king's mother, but shouldn't the Local Government and Traditional Affairs Department be the one carrying the main burden of the budget?"
The city document states that the king had expressed a wish to exhume the remains from the
Mayville Cemetery in Durban and for them to be reburied at his Nongoma homestead.
His wish was communicated to the offices of Premier Zweli Mkhize and Mayor Obed Mlaba two years ago.
Since then, the city has had several meetings with Mlaba, Mkhize's office, delegations from the royal household Amafa Heritage Council and Twala AmaAfrica funeral directors.
Because the city would lose an important part of its heritage if the remains were reburied at
Nongoma, Mlaba intervened and approached Zwelithini to have the reburial in Durban.
Zwelithini agreed, and the new site has been made available for the "purpose of reinterment".
The king, according to the document, had indicated he would like the function to take place before the end of May.
Expenditures include R300 000 that would go towards the provision of changing rooms for musicians and artists who would perform at the function.
A further R200 000 would be needed for transporting both the royal family and the Nongoma community, while R150 000 would be required for catering for the 1 000 VIPs attending the ceremony.
An archaeology team, which will conduct the DNA testing, will be paid R65 000.00
The figure excludes the storage, casket, transportation of the remains and the memorial stone.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1050866.ece/Queens-reburial-to-cost-R300m
No comments:
Post a Comment