South Africa’s Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has spoken out in a move to reassure his people, dismissing the tales that he had been poisoned.
The Zulu King had made the revelation via a video he released on Monday evening, explaining that he had simply gone for a health checkup in Eswatini.
In the King’s words:
“I’m happy that everything is well-functioning. There is no poison whatsoever. So please my people, especially to the Zulu people, the Zulu royal family wishes to remind everyone to not pay attention to everything that people say.”
Recall that during the weekend, the king’s traditional prime minister, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi had publicly revealed that the King had gone to neighbouring Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) for treatment on alleged poisoning.
The King’s spokesperson, Prince Africa Zulu, had however, countered Buthelezi’s claim, stating that it was simply an organised agenda to convey defamatory and baseless claims of His Majesty’s ill-health.
Nomsa Maseko, a BBC journalist had opined that the clashing of opinions between the King and Buthelezi was a sign of how the relationship between the two had fallen apart.
It is noteworthy to mention that King Misuzulu was crowned in front of thousands of his subjects in October, 2022.
Since then, a fierce power struggle has been raging within the royal family over the 48-year-old’s King’s accession due to the fact that it came sooner than was expected. In addition to this, tensions have reportedly surfaced between the monarch and Chief Buthelezi.
Misuzulu kaZwelithini has no formal political power and his role within the broader South African society is largely ceremonial, however, he is extremely influential with a yearly government-funded budget of several million dollars.
