THERE is no comfortable way of saying this but the French probably did have the correct approach - the only effective way to deal with the monarchy is to place as much distance as possible between their heads and the rest of their bodies.
Unfortunately we live in a supposedly progressive, rights-driven age and these days the despatch of members of royalty before a baying mob in the town square to advance the republican cause is considered a somewhat vulgar course of action.
The stroke of an executive pen, however, has proven to be as effective as any guillotine blade. And so it was, in July 2010, that, following the recommendations of the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, South Africa lost six of its royal families.
Despite this promising start, government soon lost interest in the initiative and abandoned it, seemingly to once again remind the country that a job half-done is perhaps better than none at all. The upshot here is that we still have seven of these embarrassments, so-called royal houses, cluttering the place.
They have no purpose whatsoever - although one of them, the AbaThembu's King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, appears to have volunteered his services as a lap dog for Jacob Zuma.
This wasn't always the case. Readers will recall that Dalindyebo once delighted in insulting the President, and in 2013 called him "the liar who doesn't use condoms" and "a Zulu boy" - which prompted the AbaThembu Royal family to write to Zuma, suggesting he withdraw their monarch's "recognition certificate" forthwith.