BATTLE ROYAL FOR ZULU THRONE

A war is brewing over the late King Zwelithini’s assets, with tempers heightened by suspected forgery and rumours of poisoning

It is high drama at the Zulu royal house. Just days after the regent, the late King Zwelithini’s Great Wife, Queen Mantfombi, died, a major legal battle has begun, which is expected to spark a bruising succession battle for the throne.

Queen Mantfombi Dlamini was installed as regent immediately after the king died last month. Her son, Prince Misuzulu, is rumoured to be in line for the throne.

The king’s daughters from his first wife, Queen Sibongile Dlamini, are mounting a court challenge, claiming the king’s will, which is with royal family lawyer Jerome Ngwenya, is a forgery.

Princesses Ntandoyenkosi and Ntombizosuthu want to stop the will being executed until its authenticity has been tested. They base their assertion on a handwriting expert’s view that the king’s signature may have been forged.

In a separate court action, their mother, Queen Sibongile Dlamini, has asked the high court in Pietermaritzburg to interdict the coronation of a regent or king. She wants the court to recognise her civil marriage to the late king as his only legally binding union. She is seeking a court order declaring she was married to King Zwelithini in 1969 in terms of the Marriage Act of 1961.

But there is a problem. Ngwenya, the royal lawyer, says the queen’s marriage certificate, a copy of which is attached to her court papers, states that they were actually married in terms of section 26 (6) of the Black Administration Act.

The act, which has since been repealed, stipulated that black marriages that took place before 1988 were out of community of property. However, the Constitutional Court recently upheld a Durban high court ruling that marriages under the repealed act be made in community of property by default.

The brewing war is clearly over the late king’s assets. They include farms, numerous properties, livestock and millions of hectares of land controlled by the late king’s Ingonyama Trust. The Zulu royal family is funded by taxpayers to the tune of R71m a year.

What has also inflamed tempers are rumours that the queen may have been poisoned. These were first mentioned by Mangosuthu Buthelezi in an SABC interview before the queen died. Buthelezi, traditional prime minister for the Zulu nation, is also a member of the royal family in that his mother was sister to King Solomon, the late king’s grandfather. These shenanigans have set Twitter afire, with commentators dubbing them the Game of Thrones.

It’s juicy, meaty stuff that goes down well with good food and wine, as my friends Nhlanhla Sibeko and Nomsa Mkhize discovered over the weekend. We were at an elaborate lunch at Polpetta when we reviewed these stories. The appeal of this vibrant restaurant is its big range of craft beers. I’ve outgrown the beverage but my two friends are young and forever thirsty. So, they had a great time sampling them.

For starters I had crispy calamari heads grilled with olive oil and garlic (R59). My friends each had chopped tuna salad (R89). The starters were great. For mains, Nomsa had the meat balls with spaghetti (R102), Nhlanhla the pasta salmone (R89) and I had the veal limone (R189), which was unremarkable. The first time I was exposed to veal limone was back in 1995, at an eatery called Magica Roma in Pinelands, Cape Town. I have yet to find the same magic. But the dining experience was great — obviously enhanced by the juicy stories we were sharing, like pinches of snuff.

The veal limone was unremarkable but the dining experience was great — enhanced by the juicy stories we were sharing, like pinches of snuff

Polpetta Ristorante

255 Rivonia Road, Morningside, Johannesburg

Tel: 011-804-8866

Norma Gigaba

Cyril Ramaphosa Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Ace Magashule

Mosebenzi Zwane