As we celebrate the Heritage Month, I’m asking myself what is the role of traditional leaders in the big cities?
I’m talking about traditional leaders in the Cape Flats in particular.
I fail to understand who these people represent. How did they get into these positions in the first place?
Out of nowhere, we have chiefs who are leading us without knowing where they come from.
I know areas such as Philippi, Crossroads, Langa and Site B have traditional leaders but I don’t know what they are doing in our societies.
I’ve never heard of any public meeting called by the so-called leaders in our communities to address us about the burning issues in the community.
I believe as a traditional leader you preside over your people. For example, where I’m from Engcobo, is also known as eMaQwathini, because it is ruled by the Qwathi tribe. It is their land.
All of us who are not under the Qwathi clan are supplicants.
So, how do you become a traditional leader in Crossroads, because there are different people from different places?
Maybe I need to be enlightened about how they operate.
I’m not disrespecting them, but I’m questioning the criteria of the people who were appointed the traditional leaders in the so-called Cape Flats.
These leaders must be visible in our societies so that we can recognise them. Not even one of them stood up addressing us on issues pertaining to our social ills that we encounter on a daily basis.
I challenge all the traditional leaders in the province to do the right thing by visiting our communities where their people are and tell us if the places they are living in are conducive for human settlement.
The youth is dying every day and I never hear a traditional leader condemning that.
To them everything is well.
