The recent outbursts of xenophobia in South Africa come as no surprise given our own royal experience of rejection by the powers that be in government surrounding my South African citizenship and delivery of my ID book and passport. At the present moment - as South Africa celebrates Freedom day on April 27, 2015 the King of Bakgatla ba Kgafela tribe in South Africa (Kgafela ii) and his family are without ID’s and passports, not because of any valid reasons, but simply because some officer(s) at the infamous Home Affairs office, have consistently refused to deliver the documentation without stating reasons over a period of three years.
I became a South African citizen in November 2012, but to date we still struggle with the Home Affairs office to release our documents. Without an ID, a foreigner struggles to manoeuvre around because an ID is required almost everywhere to do business in public and private affairs. We experience this rejection because we are perceived as foreigners who have come into South Africa to upset the status quo of corruption prevailing in the Bakgatla tribal office of Moruleng, where billions of rands continue to be siphoned unabated in a fraudulent enterprise that encompasses big names. Yet, it was my great grandfather, Kgosi Linchwe I who co- founded the African National Congress (ANC) and my father Kgosi Linchwe ii who cared for the comrades during the war against apartheid. My royal uncle, Ramono Linchwe, was born and raised in South Africa. He worked with my father to help the comrades, but he too has suffered the same rejection, where the Home Affairs office refuses to release his ID book and passport without stating reasons.
