Immigration marches not a Zulu campaign, says king

The anti-immig­rant marches set to take place on June 30 are not a Zulu campaign despite attempts to eth­ni­cise the issue, a spokesperson for Zulu monarch King Mis­u­zulu kaZwe­l­ith­ini said.

Prince Thu­lani Zulu sought to ease ten­sions, mak­ing it clear that the Zulu mon­arch had neither called for nor endorsed the marches.

“The king has noth­ing to do with the march. He has not given any instruc­tion to the people,” Zulu said.

The king fully sup­ports the con­sti­tu­tional right of cit­izens to protest but would never con­done viol­ence or attacks on any indi­vidual.

Zulu also cri­ti­cised what he described as attempts to eth­ni­cise the immig­ra­tion issue by por­tray­ing it as a Zulu cam­paign. “We are con­cerned that people have turned the focus to the Zulu nation as if this is a march of the Zulu nation. This is a national crisis.”

Zulu said the royal house­hold had met a gov­ern­ment min­is­terial del­eg­a­tion and remained will­ing to engage human rights organ­isa­tions if neces­sary.

However, he said, there was no reason to expect viol­ence because pre­vi­ous marches had been peace­ful.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal con­vener Mike Mabuyakhulu echoed the call for restraint. He warned that pro­test­ers wear­ing tra­di­tional attire and dir­ect­ing insults at people speak­ing other South African lan­guages risked turn­ing a national issue into an eth­nic one.

“We must not behave in such a way that we bring a tra­di­tional ele­ment into the issue.”

• Read the full story here.