WITH judgment in the battle for the Zulu royal throne expected to be handed down by the Pietermaritzburg High Court today, Prince Thulani Zulu said that regardless of the outcome there would be no winners or losers in the matter as all they needed now was stability.
Zulu spoke ahead of the commencement of the sitting for the judgment set to be handed down by Judge Mjabuliseni Madondo.
“Finally the date has come, but there’s neither winner nor loser here, all we need is stability because the royal household has been suffering and people have said the nation has no king, but we’ve never had no king. We have had the king for some time, it’s only that people were denying this.
“We are citizens of the country and we obey the Constitution, that’s why we are here and we will rally behind the judgment whatever it says. We are happy, people will come together and make their minds, we have a long life to live with our king and there are so many projects, community projects, that we need to embark on but we have been delayed by this dispute,” Zulu said.
He said squabbles for the Zulu throne were not new and that even in the time of King Cetshwayo there had been a fight amongst the siblings for ascendency to the throne that had left many people dead.
The position of the Zulu king is held by King Misuzulu KaZwelithini on a de facto basis, but a faction of the Zulu royal household led by Prince Mbonisi Zulu is disputing his ascendency to the throne and instead wants Prince Simakade Zulu, the late King Goodwill Zwelithini’s first-born son (albeit out of wedlock) to become king instead.
“Today we are happy no one has died here, there’s just a misunderstanding that will pass and we hope that after the judgment today we will come together and chart the way forward. We are happy about that.
“We are here because we want the coronation, in fact we are supposed to have done that long ago, but because we need to satisfy each and everyone’s opinion then I think the court is here to help us because we can’t wait to get our king coronated,” Zulu said.
With the government having suspended funding of programmes of the Zulu royal household, Zulu added that they hoped that once the judgment is handed down the government would make a resolution on the way forward.
samkelo.mtshali@inl.co.za
Political Bureau