Celani Sikhakhane
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has hit out yet again at members of the royal family who continue to insist that King Misuzulu was not the legitimate heir to the Zulu throne.
“I am being accused of shoving King Misuzulu down the throat of the royal family,” Buthelezi said on Wednesday.
“I think they are not well, mentally,” he quipped in reference to those who continue to challenge King Misuzulu’s succession to the throne, among them siblings of the late King Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu who died in March of this year.
However Buthelezi, who is the traditional prime minister to the Zulu monarch and the Zulu nation, said his critics overlook the fact that King Misuzulu kaZwelithini’s destiny to become king of the Zulu nation was written at the time of his birth.
This was regardless of whether there was a will in place explicitly stating this when King Zwelithini passed away, he explained.
UMntwana kaPhindangene, as Buthelezi is affectionately known, was speaking in Nquthu, in KwaZulu-Natal, during the handing over of a multimillion-rand stadium on Wednesday.
According to Zulu royal tradition, the first-born son to King Zwelithini and his late wife Regent Queen Mantfombi kaSobhuza was always destined to be crowned a prince who would automatically ascend to the throne at the time of his father’s death and such was the fate of King Misuzulu kaZwelithini.
Buthelezi added that the lobola for Queen Regent Mantfombi kaSobhuza had been paid by the Zulu Nation, which was further proof of the expectation placed upon her to bear the next king of the Zulu Nation.
A faction within the Zulu royal family has accused Buthelezi of dictating who should become king. The nonagenarian has rejected this. However the grouping has said they will continue to challenge King Misuzulu’s legitimacy, arguing he is not acceptable to the monarch.
King Misuzulu was allegedly poisoned in September during his birthday celebrations in Umhlanga, on the outskirts of Durban.
