'ONE CHIEF, ONE VOTE': THE REVIVAL OF TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

During the apartheid era, chiefs were maligned as puppets ofbantustan rule. In ANC-related circles, it was widely assumedthat chieftaincy would not survive in the post apartheid era.But the institution of traditional leadership has proved highlyflexible. Rather than being phased out as relics of pre-modemtimes, chiefs are re-asserting themselves in the new South Africa.Chiefs have survived throughout this century with a strategyof shifting alliances. Towards the end of the 1980s, chiefswere re-orienting themselves towards the ANC, rightly perceivedas the new ruling party-in-waiting. Combining the resourcesof tradition with a discourse of liberation politics and development,they were able to explain constitutional and other legal guaranteesfor the position of traditional leaders and their representationsin the local, provincial and national administration. For itspart, the ANC had an interest in wooing chiefs to its side inorder to prevent the emergence of a conservative alliance wheretraditional leaders could join forces with the bantustan elites.The article analyses these developments, discusses the mainthemes of debate and concludes with a briefcase study of chieftaincyissues in the Northern Transvaal.