Royal battle rages on

CLAIM: COURT ‘UNLIKELY TO RECOGNISE FIRST WIFE AS SOLE SPOUSE’

Queen contests she is the only legitimate wife of the late king as they were married under civil law.

It is too soon to speculate what the courts will decide on issues surrounding the Zulu royal family, but it is unlikely that the late King Goodwill Zwelithini’s first wife, Queen Sibongile Dlamini, could have her civil marriage to the late king recognised as the sole union as customary law allows polygamy, said cultural experts.

In two court applications before the Pietermaritzburg Magistrates’ Court, Dlamini is contesting that she is the only legitimate wife of the late king as they were married under civil law, which prohibits polygamous relationships and marriages.

But while anything can happen in court, it was highly unlikely Dlamini would be successful for “a range of complex reasons”, said former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor and commissioner of the South African Law Reform Commission Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo.

“Although [there is] no doubt [that] determined lawyers can put together an argument that at some point in history the civil marriage predominated where there were other customary marriages existing.

“But in view of the amending provisions of the 1988 Act and the clear attempts of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act of 1998 to ensure that a polygamist never again ‘mixes’ civil and customary marriages within his households, anything can happen in court. I am reluctant to speculate.”

Dlamini was also claiming 50% of the king’s estate including the Ingonyama Trust, which he was a sole trustee, stating in her affidavit that the estate was controlled by the two of them jointly. While the two might have got into a civil

Their marriage was out of community of property due to discriminatory apartheid laws.

marriage as they were married according to the Marriage Act of 1961, it is not yet conclusive unless there are more facts, said Nhlapo said.

As claimed by media reports that the king’s marriage certificate with Queen Dlamini was issued in terms of Section 22(6) of the Black Administration Act of 1927, their marriage was out of community of property due to discriminatory apartheid laws, he said.

“If this is the case, the consequences of that marriage, though civil, would be that the matrimonial property regime was out of

community of property. That was one of the discriminatory effects of apartheid laws – black people could marry Western-style but they did not thereby secure for themselves the automatic consequences of civil marriage which accrued to whites and other race groups, which consequences were in community of property,” he said.

It was the Marriage and Matrimonial Property Amendment Act of 1988 which provided that black civil marriages entered into after the Act would automatically be in community of property unless the parties insisted otherwise. But this was not retroactive, said Nhlapo. Marriages of black people before 1988 remained out of community of property.

“This was only resolved this year when the Constitutional Court… ruled Section 22(6) of the Black Administration Act unconstitutional and therefore invalid.

“When you put all these fac

tors together, Queen Dlamini may now be in a position to claim that she was married in community of property. Unfortunately, this does not totally dispose of the matter.”

How would succession then work? Nations and polities had their own principles, which often adopt identities from the male line.

In many polities, the first son from the legally wedded wife would customarily take over, said cultural expert at University of Free State, Professor Pearl Sithole.

But when a king calls on the polity and nation to pay lobola for a particular wife, regardless of the order of marriage, she will become the chief wife.

“In other polities, regardless of the king having had married, as soon as he marries someone from royalty, that person is going to be the chief wife.

“It might be the case here.” –