Zuma in court bid to block princess who would be king
‘Great wife’ insists daughter has claim to throne
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has been drawn into a royal battle following a government move to block the daughter of the late king of eastern Pondoland from ascending to the throne.
Within days of the king, Justice Mpondombini Sigcau, winning a Constitutional Court case against the president in June last year, Zuma sent two of his ministers to convey his congratulations to the royal family.
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini and the then minister for women, children and people with disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, met the royals at the Qaukeni Great Place in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape.
But now Zuma has gone to the High Court in Pretoria to stop Sigcau’s daughter, Princess Wezizwe Sigcau, 36, from becoming queen.
In court papers, Zuma and former minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Solomon Tsenoli are contending that she has no right to claim the title of queen.
The 36-year-old is one of two daughters born to the king, who died in March last year.
Her mother, regent Queen Lombekiso MaSobhuza Sigcau, has been acting as the queen since the king’s death. In October, she and other members of the royal family unanimously chose Wezizwe to be the queen.
They informed Zuma and asked him to afford her the necessary recognition. This time there were no congratulations — instead, they were slapped with legal action.
This is because, in July 2010, Zuma, acting on the recommendations of the Nhlapo commission which was investigating who South Africa’s rightful kings were, found that Zanozuko Sigcau — and not Wezizwe’s father — was the legitimate king.
Justice Mpondombini Sigcau challenged this decision in the Constitutional Court and a rul- ing was handed down three months after his death.
Ayanda Ngubo, a senior associate at law firm Webber Wentzel, said the Constitutional Court set aside Zuma’s recognition of Zanozuko Sigcau.
“This was because the president relied on the new Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Amendment Act instead of the old one. If the president had followed the old act, he was obliged to consult with the royal family on the candidate that has been decided.”
In a 49-page affidavit, Professor Muzamani Nwaila, directorgeneral in the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, said after Mpondombini’s death, his wife adopted the stance that the Constitutional Court judgment “vindicated” her late husband’s position as the legitimate king.
She took up the position as regent and informed “the broadly extended royal family” that, as his “great wife”, she remained the only person entitled to nominate an heir. She then nominated Wezizwe.
Nwaila said in court papers: “Wezizwe Sigcau has no right to claim the position. I must accentuate that this is not because she is a woman. It is solely because her claim is premised on the mistaken assumption that her father, Justice Sigcau, had been properly designated as king before his death.”
Responding to Nwaila’s claims, Wezizwe, who lodged an answering affidavit in court this week, was adamant that her father was king and Zanozuko Sigcau was the “claimant”.
Wezizwe said the decision to fill the position was the royal family’s prerogative.
“It is the royal family that, in terms of customary law, identifies the person and thereafter informs the president.” She said according to Pondo custom, when a king dies without a male “issue” the family meets with the “great wife”, who has the right to choose an heir.
Ngubo said her firm was acting pro bono in the case because it was in the public interest to ensure that issues relating to traditional leadership were resolved in accordance with custom and the constitution.
John GI Clarke, a social worker for the royal family, who has written a book on the late king, said it should be their sole prerogative to decide a successor from one generation to the next.
It is the sole prerogative of the family to decide a successor