Mind your own business, Zulu queen and princesses tell Buthelezi

Queen Sibongile Winifred Zulu, the first wife of late king Goodwill Zwelithini — who is laying claim to half his estate by virtue of being married in community of property — says “the reality is that the other queens made a choice to get involved with someone who was already married”.

“I am not being selfish. This is a matter of principle,” she says in her latest affidavit, filed in the Pietermaritzburg high court.

The queen wants the court to declare that her civil marriage is valid, that she is entitled to 50% of the late king’s estate and that he was precluded by law from entering into any other marriages.

In a separate application, her daughters, princesses Ntandoyenkosi Zulu and Ntombizosuthu Zulu-duma, are challenging the authenticity of the late king’s will and with it his stated wish that King Misuzulu kazwelithini, the eldest son of his third wife, Queen Mantfombi Dlamini-zulu, take over the throne.

The king, who took six wives, died on March 21.

Queen Dlamini-zulu, who is said to have had elevated status because she was from Swaziland royalty, was appointed regent during the time of mourning. She died on April 29, paving the way for her eldest son to take over the throne.

Both applications are being opposed by various members of the royal family, but only Mangosuthu Buthelezi has deposed an affidavit, saying King Misuzulu kazwelithini’s claim to the throne was a foregone conclusion, legally and culturally.

King Misuzulu kazwelithini has launched a counter-application, seeking to declare the civil marriage of December 1959 null and void.

Again, Buthelezi is the only one who has filed an affidavit.

In it, he says Queen Sibongile Winifred Zulu cannot now, 50 years on, “wish away” the king’s other wives and that the civil marriage concluded after a traditional ceremony is an “irrelevant exercise in futility”.

But the queen and princesses now say Buthelezi should stay in his lane, that he has no legal standing to get involved in either matter and that he is, in essence, meddling in another man s affairs.

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In latest affidavits they say his position as “prime minister” of the Zulus is not recognised by the Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, he is not a beneficiary of the disputed will and the issues regarding the validity of the late king’s marriages are “only the concerns of the queens”.

Queen Sibongile Winifred Zulu says it is “shameful to witness the antics of Buthelezi, a respected statesman, an elderly man with his household, dragging himself and challenging a marriage of another man.

“It is an unprecedented act of desperation.”

She and the princesses say his opposition should be disregarded by the court, leaving “no real opposition”.

On the merits of her matter, the queen says the other wives knew the late king was married to her and “they were aware and reconciled themselves to the fact that their union at some point could face a challenge relating to validity”.

“We chose to be married in terms of the Marriages Act.

“To this end, the marriage is protected from practices such as polygamy.”

She says Buthelezi contends that should her court application succeed, it will “denude the other queens of their dignity”. “But turn the question around ... is it not denuding my dignity to ignore my marital regime and subject me to practices that I did not sign up for?

“Is he advocating that as a woman I do not have rights to protect my dignity, my beliefs, my values and my choices?

“Is his reasoning not taking women back to the days where husbands had marital power over their wives?”

She says the disputed will states that all the late king’s marriages must be treated on the same footing, “with no ranking order”.