Prince Mbonisi Zulu, brother of the late AmaZulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, has announced that the royal family, as he terms it, will go to court to set aside the decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to recognise King Misuzulu kaZwelithini as the new AmaZulu monarch.
The interview below is with Prince Mbonisi Zulu’s attorney, Peter Zwane:
However, legal experts have earlier said they foresee a difficult legal battle.
Attorney Mpumelelo Zikalala says the faction of the royal family might find it difficult to challenge a recent ruling by Judge Isaac Madondo in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
“Every single person who is aggrieved by any court decision has a right to say I am going to go to court to appeal that particular court decision. But the success of their challenge that’s where the main challenge is.”
“The challenge, in this case, is the following: the people who are going to challenge that particular court decision must have been people who attended the meeting. So, it can’t be that you attended that meeting you’re not privy to the content of what was discussed in the meeting and yet again you go to court and say this is not the individual that should be accented or being ordained by or recognised by the President. So, that’s where they fall short in terms of the success or merits in terms of their case,” says Zikalala.
AmaZulu Traditional Prime Minister, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, says he is puzzled who gave members of the royal family aiming to launch a legal challenge to the official recognition of the new king, authority to appoint a King. Buthelezi says Zulu customs are clear how the heir is appointed.
Buthelezi says, “I saw the statement that was published by Prince Mbonisi saying that they are still going to sit and appoint the King. It is very funny because the King is not appointed. in fact, the King is appointed and identified by his father and by our indigenous customary laws. I don’t think it is actually that people can sit down and decided then to choose whomever they would like to see as their King. So, I don’t know what they mean by saying they are going to sit now to appoint the King because they have no such authority.”
Pietermaritzburg High Court hands down judgment in the AmaZulu Royal family dispute:
Buthelezi says he is confident all the required processes and customs were met in the identification and nomination of King MisuZulu kaZwelithini as the successor to the throne.
“It is all of us who are heirs in our houses who were appointed by our parents. When the processes were done during the marriage of the Mother of the heir it was known from the time the Zulu nation paid lobola to King Sobhuza the second for Princess Mantfombi when she was engaged to the King. It was known because the cattle came from the Zulu nation it was obvious that King was contractually bound to appoint an heir from her cattle not from any other houses,” says Buthelezi.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi says their focus now is planning for the coronation of King MisuZulu kaZwelithini.
Buthelezi says they need a couple of weeks to plan the coronation.
“We need a few weeks to prepare. We will set up a committee with King’s Assistant and myself and also Prince Zuzifa who is also involved in the committee of the Royal family. The first step is to set up this committee as Royal family to prepare for the coronation date itself,” says Buthelezi.
Congratulatory messages pour in on the recognition of Prince Misuzulu kaZwelithini as AmaZulu King:
