Durban – Civil rights organisation AfriForum has demanded that KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi urgently reinstate stipends for two traditional leaders whose payments were stopped without explanation.
In a lawyer’s letter sent on 5 March, AfriForum called for the immediate payment of Ndunankulu (senior headman), 62-year=old M.T. Mpungose, and 70-year-old Induna (headman) M.S. Mahaye.
Both men, who serve the Mpungose Traditional Community near Nkandla, were not informed of any suspension or dismissal before their stipends were withheld.
Mpungose has served for 24 years, while Mahaye has been a traditional leader for 36 years.
AfriForum said earlier letters sent in February to the Premier’s office and the department went unanswered.
Those letters raised concerns that Mpungose had been threatened with a firearm and that legal procedures were not being followed.
Barend Uys, AfriForum’s Head of Intercultural Relations and Cooperation, described the treatment of the leaders as “inhumane and unacceptable,” warning that political interference may be behind the decision.
“The case of these two leaders is just one example of many. If the matter goes wrong, there will be blood on the hands of the officials,” Uys said.
AfriForum has worked with the Mpungose Traditional Community since 2017, including assisting in a court order that secured the construction of Kuba Secondary School in Nkungumathe.
The Premier’s office and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs have not yet responded publicly to AfriForum’s latest demands.
