South Africa’s Zulu queen fails to halt monarch’s third marriage

The first wife of the Zulu King of South Africa Misuzulu kaZwelithini has failed in her attempt to stop his plans to marry a third wife.

Princess Ntokozo kaMayisela went to court to get married this weekend.

But even if the decision has been made, it is not known if the wedding will go ahead as planned.

On Saturday, South African media quoted a letter purportedly from the king as saying that the event was canceled “due to reasons the palace was unable to deal with”.

Polygamous marriages are accepted in South Africa only if they are registered as customary marriages.

This latest row comes amid scandals surrounding King Misuzulu since he came to power in the last two years.

The Zulu king has no political power and the king’s role in much of South Africa is ceremonial, but he still wields a lot of power with an annual government budget of several million dollars.

Before his inauguration, the king married Mayisela in 2021 in a state wedding.

Speaking to them in the high court on Monday, the queen, through her lawyer, said that the king cannot marry anyone else because their marriage is still valid.

Under South African law, a civil marriage must be dissolved or converted to a customary union before a man can remarry other wives.

It is unclear why the marriage agreement was not an issue when the king took a second wife, Princess Nozizwe Mulela-Zulu, in 2022.

But according to the weekly newspaper of South Africa Sunday World, referring to the letter that Queen Mayisela wrote to the officials of the Zulu palace, the couple agreed that their wedding should be changed from traditional to traditional.

The couple, given the option of divorcing and remarrying or asking to be converted by their legal team, apparently chose to do so but King Misuzulu “decided to change his mind” for reasons unknown, the queen said.

In rejecting Monday’s request to stop the marriage between the king and Nomzamo Myeni, judge Bongani Mngadi said that since the queen had already agreed to her husband marrying other women, he could not stop the ceremony.

Although the letter that was written, as well as the king’s lawyer in court, says that the marriage will not take place, contradictory statements have come out.

South African news site TimesLIVE reports that the bride says she knows nothing about the letter and as far as she understands, her wedding will go ahead as originally planned.

According to another website, IOL, which is said to have spoken to the couple, the king insisted that he loves Myeni and “will forcefully marry her.”

Since his reign in October 2022, there has been controversy over some of the decisions that King Misuzulu has made.

In December, he suspended the Ingonyama Trust committee, which owns and manages many public lands in KwaZulu-Natal, which are supposed to be profitable and useful to the people led by the king in the region.

Mfumu Misuzulu is the sole trustee and chairman of the board but he does not have the power to appoint or dismiss them.

He recently sacked two of his closest aides, including his culture minister, in quick succession – moves that have raised eyebrows among royal watchers.

Misuzulu’s position as king is being questioned by others and there is currently a case against the government to accept him as king.

He ascended the throne sooner than expected after his father, King Goodwill Zwelithini, died of the Covid pandemic in March 2021 due to complications related to diabetes.

Zwelithini was the longest-reigning king of the Zulu nation, serving on the throne for nearly 50 years.