Zulu king meets with premier

FOLLOWING his rise to the Zulu throne last week on Friday, the new Zulu King, Misuzulu kaZwelithini, yesterday met with KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala.

After a behind-closed-doors meeting at KwaKhangelamankengane royal palace in Nongoma, Zikalala said he had assured the 47-year-old American-educated king that the provincial government he led would continue to play its role in supporting the royal household, as it had done in the past.

“The purpose of the meeting was to clarify how the government works with the royal house as a whole. It is known that the royal house is under the premier’s office, in terms of governance and administration, and that the premier’s office is expected to provide support to His Majesty and the royal house as a whole, as has always happened. So we are here to deal with such issues as to how we provide that and ensure that it is not disrupted,” he said.

Zikalala added that they had discussed the issue of the king’s security, and that of the entire royal family. The issue of security became a pressing one on Sunday when the KZN government, the ANC in KZN and the SAPS at a national level accused Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi of peddling lies by claiming that the VIP protection unit for the king had been withdrawn.

Buthelezi responded to the media on Tuesday in Durban.

On the matter, Zikalala said there was a miscommunication that led to confusion about the security of the king and royal palaces.

“But more than that, we were here to ensure that as there were reports about the withdrawal of the security and all issues, we wanted to confirm for ourselves that there was no such thing …

“There was no point where the security was withdrawn and you can see this for yourselves, it is here, and we will continue to support the royal household as a whole,” he said.

Meanwhile, after officially registering his marriage with the Department of Home Affairs, the king yesterday sent a royal delegation to pay lobola for his long-time sweetheart, Ntokozo Mayisela.

The high-powered delegation paid the lobola at the Mayisela family home in Newcastle and later drove back to report to the king how the process went. The new king and the queen, 36, have two children aged 3 and 9 together, while the king has two other children with other women.

It is not clear for now if he will marry them too.