YEARS AGO

In a significant hardening of his position, Zulu monarch

King Goodwill Zwelithini has demanded the “complete restoration of the Zulu kingdom” in talks with President FW de Klerk. Sources close to the hush-hush encounters say he has called for a sovereign Zulu state according to pre-1838 boundaries.

Said one source: “Zwelithini looks over the border at Swaziland and Lesotho and says: ‘They were far smaller than [the Zulus] in my grandfather’s time and now they have sovereign kingdoms. Why should I settle for second best?’”

It is unclear how Zwelithini plans to rule such a kingdom, but it is likely that [Mangosuthu] Buthelezi would retain his position as the “traditional prime minister to the Zulu monarch.”

The demand runs directly contrary to speculation that the monarch would adopt a less political role with the imminent demise of the Kwazulu homeland, in a bid to secure his position under a new dispensation.

— The Weekly Mail & Guardian, February 11 to 17 1994