AmaMpondomise kingship must be reinstated – ruling

A 115-year battle for an anti-colonial Eastern Cape nation to get their king back ended Thursday when the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) declared the AmaMpondomise did have a kingship and ordered the kingship be reinstated. According to a Daily Dispatch report, Judge Richard Brooks also ordered that a decision taken by the Tolo Commission opposing the AmaMpondomise’s claim should be set aside. The AmaMpondomise were stripped of their throne in 1904 after King Mhlontlo was accused of killing a Qumbu magistrate, Hamilton Hope, and two white police officers during the Mpondomise Revolt in 1880-81. Although Mhlontlo was acquitted of the murder charge, he lost his kingship by administrative action in about 1904. The AmaMpondomise nation’s hopes were again dashed when the Nhlapo Commission found in 2005 that they had no claim to a kingship.

The claim to a throne was then taken up by the Tolo Commission, which in 2017 also found that the AmaMpondomise had no kingship, notes the Daily Dispatch report. Passing judgment, Brooks said the applicant – head of the AmaMpondomise Luzuko Matiwane – had alleged that the Tolo Commission had failed to afford the AmaMpondomise sufficient opportunity to make representations before it. ‘The conclusion reached upon consideration of the material placed before the court is that the Tolo Commission failed to investigate claims relating to AmaMpondomise kingship in a manner which was sufficiently scholarly, logical and fair and its reports and recommendations are invalid and ought to be set aside,’ said Brooks. With regard to the decision taken by former President Jacob Zuma to not recognise the kingship, Brooks said Zuma had based his decision on the recommendations of the Tolo Commission, which were invalid. Brooks also ordered that President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Minister of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs, the government and the Commissioner of Traditional Leaders pay the costs of the application, including costs of two counsel.