State democracy warming up to culture: an ambivalent integration of traditional leadership into the South African governance system, 1994-2009

The focus of this paper is primarily the broad shifts that have taken place on the role of traditional leaders since the advent of democratic rule in 1994. These shifts indicate that while government was initially ambivalent about traditional leadership, it has grown to embrace the idea of integration of traditional leadership into the constitutional system. The paper begins by looking at the conceptual debates around traditional leadership and democracy which, more than in any other field, have managed to transcend the academic sphere into the space of civil society. The quest to define democracy for its practice seems to be at the core of this transcendence of what is conceptual into a successful influence of civil society.