Contralesa, noun
- Forms:
- Also CONTRALESA, and (formerly) COTRALESA.
- Origin:
- Acronym formed on Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa.
A political organization founded in (the former ‘homeland’ of) KwaNdebele in 1987 and composed of chiefs and headmen opposed to the ‘homeland’ system and sympathetic to the African National Congress (see ANC noun1), the Mass Democratic Movement (see MDM), and the United Democratic Front (see UDF noun2). Also attributive.
1988 Race Rel. Survey 1987–8 (S.A.I.R.R.) 922On 23 September [1987] the formation of a new organisation, the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (COTRALESA), was announced...It had been formed by chiefs in KwaNdebele and Moutse with the specific aim of challenging the homeland system...Cotralesa already had members in Bophuthatswana and Venda.
1990 M. Kentridge Unofficial War 224Within CONTRALESA the Zulu chiefs and their headmen are no longer seen as stooges of the South African state through the proxy of the KwaZulu government: they have been rehabilitated as important traditional leaders with a part to play in the struggle for liberation from apartheid.
A political organization founded in (the former ‘homeland’ of) KwaNdebele in 1987 and composed of chiefs and headmen opposed to the ‘homeland’ system and sympathetic to the African National Congress (see ANC noun1), the Mass Democratic Movement (see MDM), and the United Democratic Front (see UDF noun2). Also attributive.
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