Amabutho outside the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria for the court case between Prince Simakade Zulu and his half-brother, King Misuzulu kaZwelithini on Tuesday. Both are vying for the Zulu throne. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria — Security has been beefed up in anticipation of the handing down of the judgment in the matter between King Misuzulu and Prince Simakade in the Gauteng High Court on Wednesday.
Police officers have been brought into the courtroom and have formed a human wall separating the three royal factions.
Sources in the king’s office says there is a power struggle over who should work closely with the king. The king’s attorney will wrap up his representation on Wednesday.
It appears that the decision to increase the police presence was prompted by skirmishes that took place outside court on Tuesday, when the regiment commander, Prince Vanana Zulu, openly blocked the king’s spokesperson, Prince Africa, from updating amabutho.
When Africa began speaking, Vanana broke into war cry and led amabutho towards him as if to attack him. However, they then moved passed him towards the court entrance. Members of the SAPS Public Order Unit moved to guard the entrance on Tuesday.
The incident, which nearly caused a commotion between Africa and the two leaders, took place just outside the court after the Zulu kingship case was adjourned.
Inside court, the king’s attorneys appeared to have the backing of Judge Norman Davis, who seemed to agree with their representations. In what seemed to be an indirect dismissal of Prince Mbonisi and Simakade’s applications that Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, now deceased, was not supposed to play a role in the succession process. Judge Davis described Buthelezi as having been the custodian of the Zulu culture so anyone who wanted to know something about the Zulu culture would have gone to him.
The judge’s comments were in sharp contrast to the representations by the legal teams of Mbonisi and Simakade on Monday, who argued that Buthelezi was not the right person to chair the meetings of the Zulu royal family.
However, the judge’s comments were well received by the king’s supporters, seated on the left side of the court. The judge also seemed to agree with the king’s attorneys that Buthelezi’s affidavit, which he filed during the Pietermaritzburg High Court case, had more or less the same content as the unsigned affidavit that Buthelezi had not signed before his death.
This appeared to be a blow to the other side since they were banking on it to bolster their case.
Advocate Moerane Moerane SC, representing President Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared to have done work for the king’s lawyers.
Moerane appeared to be punching a lot of holes in the applicant’s representations, which the judge appeared to agree with. He said the king’s appointment was mainly based on the fact that his mother was of royal blood and her lobola was paid by the Zulu nation, adding that those facts were not disputed by anyone.
His representations were more or less the same as the king’s representations. The king’s team, led by advocate Cedric Puckrin SC, appeared to be adding to what Moerane had presented.
The judge 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 Simakade to Buthelezi, in which he publicly said he had no interest in the Zulu throne, has come back to haunt him and soil his legal bid to dethrone King Misuzulu.
Simakade’s letter forms part of the court records in Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg and official royal press statement records.
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