The Pretoria High Court where the matter between king Misuzulu and Prince Simakade is being heard. Picture: Willem Phungula
Durban — The King Misuzulu and Prince Simakade throne battle is underway in North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
In what seemed to be an indirect dismissal of both Prince Mbonisi and Prince Simakade’s applications that the late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi was not to supposed to play a role in the succession process, Judge Norman Davis described Buthelezi as the custodian of the Zulu culture.
Judge Davis is presiding over the bitter feud between King Misuzulu and Prince Simakade. The judge's comments was in sharp contrast to the representations by the legal teams of Prince Mbonisi and Prince on Monday, who argued that Buthelezi was not the right person to chair the meetings of the Zulu royal family.
Judge Davis said Buthelezi was a custodian of the Zulu culture, so anyone who wanted to know something about the Zulu culture would go to him. This was well received by the king’s supporters, seated on the left side of the court.
The judge still has to decide whether he will accept the princes' application or agree with the king and president's teams that the May 14, 2021, meeting was valid.
The May 2021 letter by Prince Simakade to Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, in which he publicly said he has no interest in the Zulu throne, has come back to haunt him and soil his court case, where he is seeking to dethrone King Misuzulu.
The letter by Prince Simakade is now part of court records in Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg and official royal press statement records.
The letter has also been used to show that he initially knew that he had no legitimate claim to the Zulu throne.
But he developed an appetite for the throne when one of the factions in the Zulu royal family lobbied him to throw his hat in the ring on the basis that he is the first-born son of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini.
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