Amakomiti by Trevor Ngwane;

Author:Trevor Ngwane;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Book Network Int'l Limited trading as NBN International (NBNi)

Meanwhile, the iinkundla committees became increasingly important in the political life of the settlement, moving from social functions to jurisprudence. They increasingly sought to limit the power and jurisdiction of the people’s court, and had the support of many residents in this effort. The iinkundla committees proffered an alternative cultural, juridical and procedural foundation for solving local disputes and crime prevention that contrasted with that of the Tin House. They called for a traditionalist and rural communal approach to dispute resolution and dealing with victims and perpetrators of crime. Their strategy was to claim jurisdiction over residents who came from a particular area’s inkundla. They said the Tin House had no jurisdiction over such people and only the inkundla from their village or town (using the law of that village) could judge them. If a dispute involved people from different villages, then the relevant iinkundla committees had to meet to find a solution. If a culprit faced the justice of another inkundla, his or her inkundla should be present and represent the person. This contrasted with the justice of the Tin House community court that tried and sentenced people as individuals by ‘self-appointed’ judges and prosecutors.

When in 2006 Nkaneng nominated and voted for its own ward councillor, the ever-changing, ambiguous and constantly negotiated relationship of the popular committees with the state was reconfigured. The new councillor had been a community worker for about a decade before her nomination.43 She tells her story, saying she swung into action trying to bring development to the area and stabilising the tumultuous operation of Nkaneng’s popular committees:

The green water tanks you see were installed by me. I got support from Xtrata [mining company], they installed 12 tanks. I started with the roads, talked to the government. I got a grader to scrape the roads. Some Portuguese set up a clinic in a container. We also set up three crèches, one of them is still operating. I came with the toilet project, I signed for it. It was done only half-way. It was the municipality, you know, they go this way and that way, chowed the money. In 2010, I pushed to get land for the settlement because we are living under the [Bafokeng] king. The municipality promised some land near Karee, but then my term ended in 2011.44

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.