Publication Cover
Politikon
South African Journal of Political Studies
Volume 26, 1999 - Issue 1
114
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Miscellany

The spontaneous ideology of tradition in post‐apartheid South Africa

Pages 33-54 | Published online: 25 Feb 2007

Notes and references

  • Republic of South Africa (RSA) . Native Affairs Department Correspondence Files , Volume 13–37/1 , NAD .
  • Weekly Mail , 7–10–1988 Reproduced in
  • ANC . ‘Ready to Govern: Policy Guidelines for a Democratic South Africa adopted at the National Conference’ . May 28–31 . Section 3.
  • Friedman , Steven , ed. 1993 . The Long Journey: South Africa's Quest for a Negotiated Settlement , Johannesburg : Ravan . See
  • The arguments against inclusion of separate IFP and KwaZulu delegations pointed out, however, that each homeland state was represented by either a ruling party or a government (in those homelands under military rule). Allowing the IFP to be seated as both a national political party and a homeland ruling party amounted to double representation.
  • Contralesa was formed in 1987 as a UDF‐aligned organisation for chiefs willing to participate in the anti‐apartheid struggle.
  • Weekly Mail , 28–2–1992
  • Anonymous and Peires , Jeff . 1989 . “ ‘Ethnicity and Pseudo‐Ethnicity in the Ciskei’ ” . In The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa , Edited by: Vail , Leroy . Berkeley : University of California Press . One such submission arrived from His Majesty Maxhobayakhawuleza, Bangilizwe Sandile, King of the Ciskei Xhosa‐speaking people. S.M. Burns‐Ncamashe, ‘[Memorandum to] Rev. J.J. Mohapi, chairperson of the sub‐committee on the King of the Zulus and other traditional leaders’, 18–3–1992, ANC HQ Library, Johannesburg, South Africa. Sandile's claim to hold such a position is interestingly transparent in light of Jeff Peires’ well‐evidenced argument that no historical basis exists for a Ciskei Xhosa culture as distinct from other Xhosa speakers. See
  • Weekly Mail , 30–4–1992
  • Codesa Working Group 2 Steering Committee . 12 May 1992 . ‘General Constitutional Principles, Areas of Commonality’ , 12 May , Johannesburg, , South Africa : ANC HQ Library .
  • RSA: Act 200 of 1993, Section 181–183.
  • French , Charmaine . 1994 . ‘Functions and Powers of Traditional Leaders’ 21 Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Occasional Papers,
  • In exact correspondence with the shifting ideological strategies employed through its offices, what was until 1959 known as the Native Affairs Department became the Department of Bantu Administration and Development, the Department of Co‐operation and Development (1979), and the Department of Development Aid (1985). Needless to say, its functions remained largely unchanged.
  • RSA: Department of Constitutional Development . 1994 . Traditional Leaders A larger number of sub‐chiefs, classified as headmen in the Eastern Cape and as izinduna in KwaZulu/Natal, also take up positions in the system, however their numbers (probably between 1500 and 2000) are in greater dispute.
  • Bromberger , N. 1982 . “ ‘Some Socio‐Economic Aspects of Vulindlela’ ” . In Rural Studies in KwaZulu , Edited by: Bromberger , N. and Lea , J.D. Pietermaritzburg : University of Natal .
  • Natal Code of Native Law . 1933 . Native Administration in the Union of South Africa , 316 Johannesburg : University of the Witwatersrand Press . reproduced in Howard Rogers
  • IFP . 28 October 1995 . ‘Memorandum for Presentation to Pres. N.R. Mandela submitted by a Delegation of Traditional Leaders of South Africa’ 28 October , 1
  • For a critical perspective on traditional authority from within the debate, see Eddy Maloka ( 1995 ) ‘Traditional Leaders and the Current Transition’ , African Communist , 141 (2) . South African National Civic Organisation activists were frequently critical of traditional authority, and called for a test of individual traditional leaders legitimacy.
  • Rutsch , Peter . 1995 . ‘Traditional Trauma’ . Indicator SA , 12 (2) : 35
  • Skweyiya , Zola S.T. 1993 . ‘Chieftaincy, the Ethnic Question and the Democratisation Process in South Africa’ , 5 Community Law Centre . University of the Western Cape Occasional Papers,
  • Bekker , J.C. 1991 . ‘Tribal Government at the Crossroads’ . Africa Insight , 21 (2) : 131
  • McIntosh , Alastair . 1990 . ‘Rethinking Chieftaincy and the Future of Rural Local Government’ . Transformation , 13 : 33
  • D.L. DIamini ( 1987 ) ‘The Role of the Chief's Court in KwaZulu’ , PhD Thesis, University of Zululand
  • Marais , M. 1989 . “ ‘The Dynamics of change at the Local Level’ ” . Durban : Inkatha Institute .
  • N. Bromberger (1982) op cit, p. 39.
  • Ibid., p. 53.
  • Catherine Cross . 1991 . “ ‘Informal Tenures against the State: Landholding Systems in African Rural Areas’ ” . In A Harvest of Discontent: The Land Question in South Africa , 74 Cape Town : Idasa . Michael de Klerk
  • Callanan , Graham Inglis . 1986 . Portrait of a Zulu Chief , 106 – 7 . University of Natal Durban . BA Honours Thesis,
  • Buthelezi , KwaZulu: Dr Mangosuthu G. 1993 . ‘Policy Speech’ . Fifth Session of the Fifth KwaZulu Legislative Assembly . March 1993 . pp. 76
  • Union of South Africa: Act 21 of 1923, Section 27b.
  • KwaZulu: Act 16 of 1985, Sections 3, 14. Callanan's study records a chief's prosecution ofa man for illegally carrying a shield, spear, and sharpened stick. See Callanan (1986) op. cit., p. 136.
  • RSA: Proclamation R164 of 1990.
  • Mail and Guardian , 20–9–1996 Police agent Eugene de Kock testified in 1996 that he was asked by a commanding officer to file a false claim form for R20,000 so that the funds could be used to ‘manufacture assegais for the Zulus’.
  • Events of 4 May 1996, witnessed by the author.
  • Campbell , Catherine , Maré , Gerhard and Walker , Cherryl . 1995 . ‘Evidence for an Ethnic Identity in the Life Histories of Zulu‐Speaking Durban Township Residents’ . Journal of Southern African Studies , 21 (2)
  • Ibid., p. 292.
  • NAD, Vol. 8993–214/362.
  • Callanan (1986) op. cit., p. 122.
  • Holomisa , Patekile . 1994 . ‘The Role of Traditional Leaders in Local Government’ speech delivered at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung workshop on Traditional Leaders in Local Government, Durban, 27–28 October, reproduced in Seminar Report (Johannesburg: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung), p. 37.
  • Haines , Richard J. and Tapscott , C.P. 1988 . “ ‘The Silence of Poverty: Tribal Administration and Development in Rural Transkei’ ” . In Towards Freehold: Options for Land & Development in South Africa's Black Rural Areas , Edited by: Cross , Catherine and Haines , Richard . 169 Cape Town : Juta .
  • Zulu , Paulus M. 1984 . ‘An Identification of Base‐Line Socio‐Political Structures in Rural Areas: Their Operation and Potential Role in Community Development in KwaZulu’ , : 9 University of Zululand Occasional Paper,
  • Haines and Tapscott (1988) op. cit., p. 170.
  • Zulu , Paulus M. 1985 . “ ‘The Rural Crisis: Authority Structures and their Role in Development’ ” . In Up Against the Fences: Poverty, Passes and Privilege in South Africa , Edited by: Giliomee , Hermann and Schlemmer , Lawrence . 244 Cape Town : David Philip .
  • Zulu (1984) op. cit., p. 12.
  • Ibid., p. 13.
  • Haines and Tapscott (1988) op. cit., p. 170.
  • Zulu (1984) op. cit., p. 22.
  • Ibid., p. 23.
  • Maré , Gerhard and Hamilton , Georgina . 1987 . An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and the Politics of Loyal Resistance , 89 Johannesburg : Ravan . In 1976 the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly voted to impose fines of up to R200 for insolence to a chief.
  • In one sense, these two instances of ideology can be regarded as separate aspects of the same process. Thus, the successful projection of an ideological image appears to be no projection at all, but a spontaneously existent phenomenon. However, each aspect can also be recognised as having an independent existence. Instrumental ideological strategies may fail to produce the desired image. Similarly, ideological images may seem to appear without being immediately traceable to an instrumental apparatus.
  • Žižek , Slavoj . 1989 . The Sublime Object of Ideology , 11 New York : Verso .
  • Marx , Karl . 1977 . Capital , Volume 1 , 164 New York : Vintage .
  • Ibid., p. 165.
  • Ibid., p. 166.
  • Poulantzas , Nicos . 1978 . Political Power and Social Classes , 128 London : Verso .
  • Ibid.
  • Lukács , Georg . 1983 . History and Class Consciousness , 100 Cambridge : MIT Press .
  • Jameson , Fredric . 1994 . “ ‘Postmodernism and the Market’ ” . In Mapping Ideology , Edited by: Žižek , Slavoj . 281 New York : Verso .
  • Žižek (1989) op. cit., p. 34.
  • Eagleton , Terry . 1991 . Ideology , 40 New York : Verso .
  • Pitkin , Hanna . 1967 . The Concept of Representation , 236 Berkeley : University of California Press .
  • Lukács (1983) op. cit., p. 90.
  • Thomas , Paul . 1994 . Alien Politics , New York : Routledge . See
  • ‘If the government builds people houses and the people have better houses than us, they will begin to undermine us'; . Weekly Mail , 7–7–1995 Marx (1977) op. cit., p. 149n. Not all hereditary rulers fail to comprehend the relational aspect of their position. One South African chief expressed his opposition to a government programme to improve low‐income housing saying,
  • Thus, as the 1996 local government elections got underway in KwaZulu/Natal, voter education workers and ANC organisers were frequently denied access to rural communities or attacked on arrival. The explanation commonly given was that they had failed to obtain the chief's permission to be there or to conduct political activities. Many such cases were communicated to the author personally. For some documented cases see Human Rights Committee of South Africa ( 1996 ) Human Rights Report , February , p. 16 Sunday Tribune, 25–2–1996; Business Day, 16–4–1996; Mercury, 22–5–1996.
  • Reader , D.H. 1966 . Zulu Tribe in Transition , 253 Manchester : Manchester University Press .
  • RSA: House of Assembly Debates, 14 November 1994, cl.4237.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.