Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini said he will partner with the Afrikaner pressure group AfriForum to ensure food security, South African broadcaster eNCA reports.
“The Zulu nation I’m talking about will not exist if we don’t have food. That’s why I say farmers must come closer so that we discuss what we can do when we talk about agriculture and the availability of enough food in the land,” King Zwelithini said according to Enca.
“That’s why I’m asking AfriForum of the Boers to come and help us, as they’ve introduced themselves to me that they are willing to work with me and my father’s people to uplift agriculture in our land in order,” he said.
Both AfriForum and the Zulu king are against proposed land reforms.
King Zwelithini has previously said that he wants South Africa’s president to guarantee that his territories will be exempt from forthcoming land reforms.
The king controls 2.8 million hectares of land through a corporate entity called the Ingonyama Trust.
In August, President Cyril Ramaphosa made the controversial announcement that South Africa’s constitution would be changed to explicitly allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
Land reforms were first promised when white-minority rule ended in South Africa in 1994.
White people, who make up just nine percent of the population, own 72 percent of the farmland that is held by individuals, government figures show.
