King Misuzulu kaZwelithini’s official spokesperson, Prince Thulani Zulu, has finally clarified his conspicuous absence during the traditional wedding between the king and now Queen Nomzamo Myeni-Zulu on Sunday.

The king and Myeni traditionally exchanged wedding vows in front of thousands of people in an open space at Kwakhangelamankengane Palace in the north of KwaZulu-Natal.

However, many supposedly noticed that Zulu was not by the king’s side as he used to be during other traditional ceremonies of the kingdom.

His absence strengthened speculations that he had been fired from his position. This speculation was also fuelled by his earlier comment when asked by the media about the wedding, where he said he was unaware of it.

However, Zulu came out on Wednesday and clarified his absence and his unavailability to comment about the wedding during preparations.

“King’s subjects, I wish to first apologise for not seeing me during the king’s wedding on Sunday. I am not well and suffered from pink eye since that king’s imbizo. I felt I should explain this because people like to speculate. The only reason why I was not there was because I was not well. I had a pink eye, which I contracted during the king’s reconciliation imbizo on October 29,” said Zulu.

He stated that because of the pink eye, he lost sight and had to be driven home. He further stated that he requested leave of absence from the king, which was granted.

Although Zulu clarified his absence at the wedding, he highlighted that there are issues that the royal family still needs to attend to.

The wedding was preceded by umkhehlo (showering of gifts to the bride by a man before the formal wedding). This sparked a debate among culturalists, who argued that it’s uncultural as it is done to women who have no children.

The queen reportedly has three children from another relationship.

The king’s marriage to Myeni was supposed to take place in January; however, soon after the announcement of the date, the king’s first wife, Queen Ntokozo Mayisela, whom the king married under civil marriage, approached the Pietermaritzburg High Court where she filed an urgent application to interdict the wedding.

Her argument was that the king would be breaking the law as he was married to her under the Civil Marriage Act, which forbids the couple from entering into other marriages while the first one still exists.

The court dismissed the application as not urgent and struck it off the roll.

Secondly, the court said there was no proof that the traditional ceremony would amount to a wedding.

In his defence, the king denied getting married. Now that the king and Myeni are regarded as married, it is unclear whether the marriage is recognised under the Marriage Act, given the court’s dismissal of Mayisela’s application.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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