King Misuzulu’s coronation to go ahead
PRETORIA - The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria had dismissed the urgent and last-minute court application by Prince Mbonisi who wanted to have the August 13 coronation of King MisuZulu halted.
Judge Noluntu Bam struck the matter off the roll and the senior Zulu Prince, who is a half-brother to the late King Goodwill Zwelithini, was ordered to pay legal costs. The judge said the matter lacked the urgency cited by Prince Mbonisi and the 12 other members of the royal family like Prince Mxolisi and Prince Vulindlela.
“Kindly take note of the order made by the court. The matter is struck off the roll for want of urgency with costs and such costs include the costs of two counsel where so employed,” Judge Bam ruled on Tuesday after listening to submissions for about four hours.
The dismissal of the case now paves the way for the two-legged coronation (in Nongoma and Durban) to go ahead without any legal hurdle, even though Prince Mbonisi and others still have two other cases in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and the High Court in Pretoria. In the SCA case, the senior
Zulu prince and others are challenging Judge Isaac Madondo’s ruling in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in March which paved the way for the recognition and the coronation. Other than King Misuzulu, the applicants in Tuesday’s case dragged in Prince Mangosuthu
Buthelezi, the king’s Traditional Prime Minister, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala, President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, among others.
When the case started, Advocate Thabani Masuku SC opened the floor by telling the judge that should the coronation be allowed to go ahead, the horse would have bolted as the applicants would have no redress after that. He argued that the coronation should be halted because it would endorse a process that was being challenged in court, since the nomination process that led to King Misuzulu taking the throne was flawed in many ways.
He said the coronation was the last step in this historic process and if allowed, it would pose challenges for all parties. However, he admitted in court that Prince Mbonisi and the others were not claiming that King Misizulu did not qualify, but they were merely challenging the process followed.
Later, Masuku told the court that Prince Mbonisi and others did not dispute that Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a member of the Zulu Royal Family. However, what they dispute are the powers he claims to have. Powers like being the only one empowered to call royal meetings which they claimed he later abused to ram through the nomination and recognition of Misuzulu as the heir to the throne.