Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Weekly Newsletter to the Nation
My dear friends and fellow South Africans,
This week I returned from Britain where I was the guest of honour of the Royal Welsh Regiment for their Saint David’s Day parade and dinner. I felt very honoured as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Regiment’s Colonel in Chief, performed the same role last year.
During the parade rich in pomp and tradition, I presented symbolic miniature leeks (the symbol of Wales) to some of the 600 Welsh soldiers to wear on their berets.
My great grandfather Mnyamana Buthelezi was the Commanding Chief of King Cetshwayo’s Regiments who fought against a small force of 139 men defending the mission at Rorke’s Drift, and which had inflicted the worst defeat ever on imperial Britain at the Battle of Isandlwana on the previous day, the 22nd of January 1879.
The British soldiers included B Company 2nd Battalion 24th Foot, who later became the South Wales Borderers, and then The Royal Regiment of Wales before forming the present Battalion two years ago.
Their iconic stand, eugolised in the film Zulu, earned them the respect not only of the British public, but also, in time, of the Zulus. Over the years a strong relationship has built up between the Welsh unit and the people of Rorke’s Drift and KwaZulu Natal. B Company has traditionally been named B ‘Rorke’s Drift’ Company to commemorate the action fought at the famous battle. Everywhere one turned there were prints depicting these famous battles.
The Regiment has gained 244 Battle Honours, far more than can be displayed on the Colours, and 43 of its soldiers have received the Victorian Cross.
I told the Regimental officers that I had come as a friend with a keen appreciation of the deep bonds of history that tie our peoples together, especially those between the Royal Welsh Regiment and the Zulu Nation. I observed that the ‘essential character’ of a nation is mirrored in her Regiments: character that has been tested by bravery and hardened by warfare over centuries. The following day I travelled through the emerald green Brecon Beacons, so strangely reminscent of the verdant hills of KwaZulu Natal faraway, to visit the Royal Welsh Museum in Brecon where Zulu Assegais spears, examples of fine beadwork worn by the Zulu warriors and the original Colours of the 24th Foot carried into the battle of Rorke’s Drift, are on display. I would have liked to linger a little longer, perhaps alone.
Then to the cathedral where, as the rain softly fell outside, I gazed upwards to the famous Queen’s Colour 1/24th which was saved by Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill at Isandlwana. Both officers, who were killed by the Zulus, were each later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. These particular Colours, because of their significance, were encased in 2002 to prevent further deterioration.
In making this visit, I was following in the footsteps of His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini, who had undertaken the same journey a few years ago. The visit, you will understand dear reader, was moving and one felt that one could almost reach out and ‘touch’ living history as the past and present mingled. I remembered how my late friend David Rattray always said that Isandlwana should not be viewed as a ‘British defeat but a great Zulu victory’, recalling how the Zulus had great mobility, courage and tactical ability.
The tales of bravery and altruism, foolishness and colonial arrogance can still inspire and teach us today from Kabul to Baghdad and, yes, to Serria Leone and Darfur too.In fact, on the same day as the parade and dinner, the news broke that the Queen’s grandson, Prince Harry had been serving for ten weeks on the frontline in Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan.
Just as a pertinent aside, several people mentioned to me how the Mercenary Bill passed last year effectively bars South Africans from serving in Her Majesty’s armed forces without having to relinquish their SA citizenship. This is a shame because I know that the Royal Welsh, for instance, might like to enlist a Zulu officer in the future. Would that not be a fitting and powerful gesture?
We all too often forget that the United Kingdom’s and South Africa’s practise of statecraft is located within very different spheres, e.g. the EU and NATO, and one major overlapping sphere, the Commonwealth. (I define statecraft as the art of diplomacy that takes a long lens view of a nation’s interests in contrast to a politician’s more short-term perspective). These differences have sometimes come to the fore over, for example, how best to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis.
But for me the trip underlined the enduring and, I will dare say the words, ‘special relationship’ between South Africa and the United Kingdom. Quite apart from our close cultural, economic, linguistic and social ties, the UK remains South Africa’s most important export market not only for fruit, vegetables and other agricultural products, but also for manufactured, value added exports such as clothing, automotive equipment, wine, furniture and many other products. The relationship is mutually valuable and should be built upon. I hope that others will follow in my footsteps so that the relationship between our countries can be ever deepened – it is a great journey.
Yours sincerely,
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP
