BULAWAYO mayor David Coltart has bemoaned the poor state of roads leading to the grave of King Mzilikazi compared to that of late colonialist Cecil John Rhodes.
Coltart paid tribute to King Mzilikazi and said Bulawayo owes its existence to him after he set up his kingdom in the country’s second city.
King Mzilikazi Khumalo died in September 1868.
Yesterday, thousands gathered at Large City Hall in Bulawayo for the King Mzilikazi commemorations where Coltart said the late King has not been honoured enough.
“I believe that we do not pay sufficient attention to this day in our city, this is the most important day in our city calendar,” Coltart said in his address.
“Had king Mzilikazi not come here and set up his kingdom, this city hall would not have been here.
“It will not be what it is and for that reason alone it is important that we give this day the hhonour that it needs.
“Our city has some of the richest culture and history in the whole of southern Africa, it was built in the 1840s way before many cities and towns through southern Africa were built.
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“So our history is much deeper because of king Mzilikazi we need to give greater honour as a council to this day.”
Mzilikazi was the founding father and first King of the Ndebele State when he left Nguniland after rebelling against King Shaka around 1826.
He had been Shaka’s trusted lieutenant.
Mzilikazi absorbed a significant number of tribes en route to Northern Transvaal from Nguniland, which became his subjects in the Ndebele kingdom
Mhlahlandlela, situated 22 kilometres from Bulawayo, along the old Gwanda Road, was King Mzilikazi’s last known capital.
“Let me say this as a white person, it is crazy that we have wide tarred roads to Cecil John Rhodes’s grave, why is it like that, we have bad roads to the king’s grave,” Coltart said.
“We need to invest in that so that we explain to our own future generations and tourists the vision that he had in bringing the Ndebele people here and we make sure that Bulawayo is better visited and honoured.”
“As council and elders we need to be working out how we can develop historical sites, such as renewing king Mzilikazi’s grave.”
Rhodes, who died in 1902 was an imperialist, businessman and politician who played a dominant role in southern Africa in the late 19th century, driving the annexation of vast swathes of land.
He founded the De Beers diamond firm which until recently controlled global trade.
Rhodes dreamt of an uninterrupted railway link stretching from Cape Town to Cairo, Egypt – the entire north to south controlled at the time by the British Empire.
His remains were interred at the Matopos National Park in Matabeleland South.
