Posted on 01/11/2018 5:17:15 PM PST by SJackson
South African Zulu King Invokes Fight Against AIDS, Drought, in Plea to ANC Government to Retain Close Israel Ties
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithinii during the unveiling of a memorial to the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a Zulu force clashed with invading British soldiers in 1879. Photo: JN / JDP / Reuters.
The king of South Africa’s Zulu nation has urged the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) to retain close ties with Israel, following last month’s vote by the ANC at its national conference to downgrade the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv to a “liaison office.”
King Goodwill Zwelithinii — the constitutionally-recognized monarch of the 12 million Zulus who make up South Africa’s largest ethnic group — told a delegation of the ANC’s senior leadership that he had developed a close relationship with Israel and the South African Jewish community since his 2009 decree introducing medical circumcision for boys in a bid to halt the spread of the AIDS virus.
According to the World Health Organization, there is “compelling evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60%.” More than 700,000 males have been circumcised since the decree was issued by the king.
“There are two clinics that have been built by Jewish organizations in this kingdom,” the king told the ANC delegation, whose members included the new party president, Cyril Ramaphosa, at last week’s meeting.
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“They came here because I requested them to come,” the king said. “They (the South African Zionist Federation and South African Friends of Israel) built these clinics the day I announced circumcision on December 6, 2009.” The two clinics, in Mathubathuba and Emondlo, provide HIV-related health services and education for the surrounding communities.
The king urged Ramaphosa and his colleagues not to enmesh South Africa “in wars that we know nothing of.”
Highlighting the benefits of Israel’s water management technology for South Africa, the king observed that “we will find that the people that we involve ourselves with, in their wars, are the same people that work in ways that can help us with our drought issues, which we are still facing because our dams are still not full.”
“They can change that and make our dams our source of life,” the king declared.
Other leading figures in the Zulu nation have also spoken out against the ANC decision to downgrade the South African Embassy in Israel. Nkosi Bishop Phakama Shembe — a key leader of the Shembe Church launched in the early twentieth century by the African evangelist Isaiah Shembe — made a statement this month asserting that “for South Africa to prosper, we firmly believe that it must stand in support of Israel, not against it.”
“Today, unfortunately, there are other voices within our society that are demanding the opposite,” Bishop Phakama Shembe said. “The Shembe Church, no less than right-thinking people around the world, wholeheartedly supports the initiatives aimed at achieving peace between Israel and its neighbors.”
The bishop emphasized that South Africa’s duty was “not to choose the path of boycott and disengagement, but to assist in whatever way we can.”
Responding to King Goodwill Zwelithinii’s plea to retain close ties between South Africa and Israel, the South African Zionist Federation said it “implores the ANC to take note of the call of the Zulu king, who represents a major constituency of the ANC.”
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“unveiling of a memorial to the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a Zulu force clashed with invading British soldiers in 1879”
The movie “Zulu” is one of my all time favorites. Great soundtrack too.
Foreskin diplomacy.? Who would’ve thought. The king sounds wiser than many European ruling class, or American leftist political hacks.
Interesting. Will have to forward that to my American South African emigre friend who’s of Jewish English background, to get his take on this.
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Chief Buthelezi is a good man, and it’s a shame that the world favored Mandela over him.
Mau Mau dipsticks
It’s still very good however it came about. (most of his people identify as Christian so this may be a part of why they are friendly with the West and Israel). And his tribe is near the Lemba tribe ( which asserts its descent from Israel , a claim for which Dan genetic tests provide support including some priestly cohanim heritage). It’s all very interesting and I regret not knowing more about them all
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithinii during the unveiling of a memorial to the Battle of Isandlwana, in which a Zulu force clashed with annihilated invading British soldiers in 1879
The Zulu didn’t do so well at Roarks Drift.
Mau Mau were Kikuyu, not Zulu.
And they were in Kenya, not South Africa.
I think South Africa would be better off with the Zulus in charge—The king might be a better ruler. I predict an allance of Whites and Zulus will take over South Africa and build a great new nation. Dump Communism/socialism and racism.
Why I picked “ZULU”.
:)
Mardi Gras In New Orleans - Professor Longhair
The king was a founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party. He used to be ANC way back at the beginning when the issue was Apartheid and both Zulus and the leftist ANC agreed it had to go, but IFP split ways with ANC over the issue of using violence to end Apartheid. IFP opposed violence, wanted slow change and to retain independence. ANC was willing to use violence, and wanted power, unwilling to leave Zulus to themselves. They split ways and pretty much got in a civil war over it and as you can imagine, with ANC favoring heinous things like necklacing those it saw as collaborators or traitors to their cause [of power, not apartheid], and was more than willing to apply the horrific torture and method of execution to blacks.
ANC accused the king of collaboration because he did not favor violence or loss of tribal identity and independence, so IFP did accept training to in order to fight ANC. That set the stage for leftists everywhere to hate and smear the Zulu leaders.
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