No Zulu King ever married 1 wife - court
MBABANE – Dismissed with costs!
An application for an order declaring that the late Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini was precluded in law from marrying other wives, because he had married his first wife through civil rites, was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa last week. Two of the wives originate from Eswatini, being Queen Mantfombi (daughter to King Sobhuza II) and Zola Zelusiwe Mafu. Three other queens of the late king, who were respondents in the matter, were Queen Buhle Mathe (first respondent), Queen Thandekile Jane Ndlovu and Queen Nompumelelo Mchiza.
The application had been moved by King Zwelithini’s wife, Queen Sibongile Winfred Zulu. It was initially dismissed by the High Court and eventually by the Supreme Court. Presiding over the matter in the Supreme Court were Mbatha JA and Musi AJA (Makgoka JA concurring).
In the initial case, before the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Queen Sibongile had approached the court on the basis that the late King married her in community of property and in civil rites marriage. As such, she had to get half of his estate, and the other five wives and children share the rest.
She said the king was not supposed to marry other wives after her, since civil rites marriage barred him. In his ruling, Judge Isaac Madondo, who is also a customary law expert, said there was no dispute about Queen Sibongile’s claim that she was married to the late King in civil rites.
Madondo also said the applicant also failed to ask the court to declare the other five customary marriages of the king unlawful. As such, the court could not rule on something that was not before it, and there was no dispute about that. Madondo said it was not clear from the application, which part of the estate, as the royal estate was divided into five categories. He added that the issue of the estate could only be resolved by the executor or relevant structure like the master of the High Court and not the court.
She appealed at the Supreme Court, where the High Court ruling was upheld.
The Supreme Court judgment said: “In all the circumstances, despite the misdirection we pointed out earlier, the High Court properly exercised its discretion by refusing to grant the declaratory relief.
“The appeal ought to be dismissed and there is no reason why costs should not follow the result. All the opposing parties, except the first respondent, employed at least two counsel. We are of the view that the employment of two counsel was warranted, given the issues in dispute,” the Supreme Court ruled.
The background of the matter, briefly, is that the appellant queen and the late Isilo entered into a marriage in community of property and profit and loss on December, 27, 1969, in accordance with Section 22 of the Black Administration Act 38 of 1927, read with the Marriage Act 25 of 1961 (the Marriage Act). The marriage still subsisted at the time of King Zwelithini’s death.
“During the subsistence of the civil marriage, the late Isilo entered into customary marriages with the second respondent, the late Queen Shiyiwe Mantfombi Dlamini, and the first, third, fourth and fifth respondent queens. The late queen passed on shortly after the late Isilo, and her estate is represented in these proceedings by its appointed executor,” reads the judgment.
Validity
The judgment further states that in his Will (the validity of which is the subject of another dispute), the late King prefaced the devolution of his estate by making an introductory statement. “He stated that the notion of marriage in community of property and profit and loss was foreign to the Zulu people, regardless of their social and economic standing. He went on to say that no Zulu King had ever got married to one wife by civil rites, in community of property, because of the very nature of the Zulu laws and culture,” the court papers read.