Today has been a very memorable day in the life of our province as we bore witness to an occasion where His Majesty received a certificate of recognition from His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, Constitutionally affirming him as our King.

Programme Director, we are grateful that fate had conspired to ensure that we are this generation of leaders who were given the responsibility to, in our small ways, play midwives to an event that will go down on the annals of history as once in a lifetime event.

As all of us know, the country last witnessed an event of this magnitude 50 years ago. Like a Haley’s Commet star which comes once in 50 years, today we witnessed an event which will, probably never be repeated in our lifetime.

It is because of this reason that the Moses Mabhida was today transformed into a sea of colour a thousands of people from all walks of life flocked into stadium while millions others in the country and abroad were glued to their screens to follow the event.

Today was historic bit because we had an opportunity to fashion it, but also because the whole country came to a standstill to join all of us in an outpouring of imaginable jubilation.

We are gathered this evening to toast to this historic moment and to thank the almighty for the gift of the King. Throughout the day we have been uplifted, joyous and in high spirits for the occasion mark the rebirth of our Zulu Nation.

We stand here to appreciate the many well wishes and messages we have received from across sectors of society.

Programme Director this is not a night of long speeches. It is a night where we have to let our hair down and toast the success of an event that has placarded the Province and the country on the map.

The success of this event reaffirms on thing that we always knew that our country had the capability and the capacity to host big events. This event was not only a thing of wonder and a symphony of colour but that it also fostered social cohesion. It is reaffirmed the vision that our forebears had when they said Msuthu, Mswazi, Mazulu hlanganani.

Today we proved that we all belong to one race the human race and we can transcend our church narrow ethnic proclivities.

Programme Director this has been a long week. We all worked hard to make the event a success. Many of our colleagues spent sleepless night to make the event a success. As such, we won’t detain you with a long speeches.

We want to thank our President for presiding over this event. We also want to thank all the dignitaries who attended the event. As the Provincial government, we are thankful that we played our part to make the event a success. We also want to thank abantwana baseNdlunkulu for working with us to make the event a runway success.

We also wish to thank those who have worked steadfastly to support the king and the throne. We owe you a debt of gratitude, Shenge.

Lastly, we want to congratulate Your Majesty for this milestone you have reached in your life. We are pleased to work with you to take this province and the country to the next level.

Your reign takes place during the most important time in the evolution our country and the world.

 

May you be the beacon of hope for your people and be the fountain of wisdom for your people.

 

I thank you