While President Jacob Zuma will be playing Santa Claus to the elderly in his rural village in Nkandla on Tuesday‚ Mangosuthu Buthelezi will be playing the role of a benevolent squire with his subjects in his rural village of Mahlabathini.

After spending most of his time in parliament in Cape Town decrying the chaos caused by rowdy Economic Freedom Fighters MPs who sit next to him on the opposition benches‚ the IFP leader will celebrate the end of the year in Mahlabathini near Ulundi on Tuesday - some 90km from Nkandla.

But unlike Zuma who will be dispensing several gifts to the elderly in the presence of his benefactors and some cabinet ministers‚ there will be no exchange of gifts during the Buthelezi clan’s December 27 ceremony.

Through his private secretary Lyndith Walker‚ Buthelezi told the Sunday Times: “There is no budget for the day‚ and the only expenses are for the food. There is no gift giving.”

Since the 1970s when he was elected head of the former KwaZulu homeland government‚ Buthelezi was asked by the people in his rural village to devote just one day — December 27 — to spend with them to celebrate the end of the year.

“They collect money among themselves for the food and he provides the beast‚” said Walker.

She was referring to the R30-a-kraal fee that helps fund the ceremony which will be attended by Buthelezi and his entire family.

“His entire family and his people attend‚ but it is a voluntary function‚ done in the name of the whole clan. His two deputies arrange it. Each year it is held in different parts of his area‚” said Walker.

Deputy leader of the Buthelezi traditional council and clan‚ Phumempini Mtshali‚ who declined to speak to the Sunday Times‚ previously told this newspaper that the December 27 function started in the 1970s at the request of the Buthelezi clan.

“Inkosi [Buthelezi] donates a cow each year and we buy another cow through the R30 levy. Previously‚ this levy was R50 but it was reduced to R30‚” he said.

While there will be little for Zuma to celebrate in Nkandla after numerous calls for him to step down after a rash of scandals‚ Buthelezi will have some reason to celebrate with his subjects after his party regained some of its traditional support during the August 3 local government elections.

Before the municipal poll‚ the traditional prime minister to Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini and chief of the Buthelezi clan‚ whose political career spans more than five decades‚ had lost his grip on his fiefdom.

Once regarded as the most powerful man in Zululand until he started losing his support to both the ANC and NFP‚ Buthelezi will be buoyed by his party’s stunning comeback in its former stronghold in the heartland of Zululand.

The 88-year-old veteran politician inherited the chieftainship of the Buthelezi clan in 1953 and he still holds it. On the advice of the late former ANC president‚ Inkosi Albert Luthuli‚ he responded to the call of the Buthelezi clan and returned to Mahlabathini to take up his hereditary position as Inkosi.

On Christmas day‚ Buthelezi will go to church for the Eucharist and then he and his family and IFP staff will go to the Holiday Inn in Ulundi for a sumptuous lunch.