Workers' union call on govt to redirect royalty funding
A workers' union is urging the government to channel the millions of rands being used to fund the country's traditional monarchs into helping rural communities instead.
The General Industries Workers' Union of SA's Mametlwe Sebei issued a statement this week calling for the abolition of all South African royalty.
"The people over whom they reign are supposed to be custodians of this land. But they are as poor, unemployed and poverty-stricken as any other anywhere else."
Sebei, who's with Giwusa, has described the millions being spent on royal families as a waste of taxpayers' money.
He says those funds can instead be used to uplift rural communities.
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The union raised concern over the millions of rands the province allocates in its budget to the Zulu royal family.
Sebei says other royals and traditional leaders, including the AmaXhosa, BaPedi, AmaNdebele and AmaMpondo kingdoms also enjoy state funding.
He says they respect people's rights to celebrate their cultures.
"We are saying that royalty today is about privilege and power. It is about power that is not accountable and obscene levels of wealth that in no way represents and reflects the conditions of the people in whose name this power is being exercised."
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