Dumisani kaCaiphus Tembe says the Mfekayi clan are being sidelined while newcomers rewrite history and claim land their ancestors never ruled, writes Celani Sikhakhane in his column on royal families across South Africa.
There’s trouble brewing in KwaZulu-Natal as historic clan rivalries are heating up over land, and some families say they’ve been erased from history altogether.
Dumisani kaCaiphus Tembe, a senior member of the Mfekayi clan, has accused the Mkhwanazi clan of hijacking land that was never theirs to begin with.
In a public letter this week, he called out both the government and other clans for rewriting history to serve their own interests.
Tembe claims the Mfekayi people were the rightful custodians of Mtubatuba, long before King Mpande kaSenzangakhona or even his father, King Senzangakhona. According to him, the Mfekayi land stretches from the Mfolozi River to the northern coast of False Bay in Mkhanyakude.
“The biggest problem is that today those surnames have now claimed to be the custodian owners of the Mtubatuba land with their own Chiefs,” he said.
Tembe argued that surnames like Mkhwanazi, Mdletshe, Hlabisa and Mdluli only arrived later and had no chiefs during the time of King Shaka. But today, some of those families are being recognised as traditional leaders, while the Mfekayi are pushed aside.
He slammed the government for treating traditional leadership like politics, saying it favours some clans over others based on modern alliances rather than historical truth.
He also said the Mfekayi claim is backed by royal bloodlines, noting that their land was linked to Queen okaNdaba, who married into the Tembe family and gave birth to Mabhudu, also known as Maputo.
Another royal woman, okaNgwanase Tembe, gave birth to Inkosi Mkhokhoba kaNtlekele kaDoko — further cementing their roots in the region.
Tembe said if the government keeps ignoring their history, it will cause more fights between clans and ruin traditional leadership.
Pictured above: Dumisani kaCaiphus Tembe says the Mkhwanazi clan used royal ties to seize Mfekayi land.
Image source: Supplied
