King Misuzulu Zulu praying during his coronation at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on October 29, 2022, during the handover of the official certificate of recognition. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images)
King MisuZulu ka Zwelithini has hit back at his detractors in the Zulu royal family over their claims that he is a drug addict and drunkard and has asked that the Pietermaritzburg high court declare his uncle, Prince Mbonisi, a vexatious litigant.
The monarch has dismissed the allegations by Mbonisi and other Zulu royals as “simply untenable” in a responding affidavit he submitted to the high court earlier this month.
They made the claims about the king’s lifestyle in an application to stop him from exercising his powers over the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) and the province’s amakhosi, and to stop the KwaZulu-Natal government from paying his salary, his benefits and his legal fees.
They also went to the Pretoria high court and won a bid to have MisuZulu’s recognition as king by President Cyril Ramaphosa set aside, but the monarch has applied for leave to appeal, which will be argued on 26 April.
In his latest affidavit, MisuZulu said Mbonisi had a history of approaching the court at the last moment for urgent relief to “impose unreasonable timeframes on the opposing party and which rendered it almost impossible for the opposing parties to timeously file their opposing papers”.
MisuZulu said Mbonisi had not been part of the initial challenge to his recognition by Queen Sibongile Zulu and Princess Ntandoyenkosi Zulu, but had joined it at the last moment.
Mbonisi had then approached the court for a second interdict against the king, which was dismissed by Judge Piet Koen in January 2022 because it had raised facts that were already before another court.
MisuZulu said Koen’s order against his uncle was “one of repetitive orders which have been made against Prince Mbonisi, dismissing or striking out each and every one of these applications” for being “ill-founded, baseless and abusive”.
In March 2022, KwaZulu-Natal’s deputy judge president, Mjabuliseni Madondo, ruled in MisuZulu’s favour in the combined matter.
Mbonisi’s conduct was not only “abusive” towards him as king, but also towards the court, MisuZulu said.
He said Mbonisi’s subsequent approach to the supreme court of appeal had been lodged three weeks late, continuing the pattern of giving the responding legal team to prepare and respond.
“Prince Mbonisi’s abuse of court proceedings is a futile attempt to nullify my identification by the royal family and recognition as the isilo of the Zulu nation,” the king said.
In April 2022 Mbonis had brought another urgent application in the Pretoria high court that had resulted in the king’s legal team having only six days to respond. The court dismissed the appeal for urgency — with costs.
“To add insult to injury” the king said Mbonisi had brought the current application to prevent MisuZulu from exercising his powers over the ITB and amakhosi; to stop his salary and to prevent him from appointing a traditional prime minister to replace the late Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
MisuZulu said the application was “riddled with fatal irregularities” and was subsequently withdrawn by Mbonisi after his (the king’s) lawyers had filed an application to have the matter struck off the roll.
Last November, Mbonisi filed “yet another” urgent application seeking similar relief, which was now before the court.
MisuZulu said the history of matters being dismissed on the basis of the same facts — and the fact that the appeal in the Pretoria matter had not been heard — meant the current application by Mbonisi could not go ahead.
“Prince Mbonsisi cannot be allowed to continue to abuse the urgent interlocutory proceedings by launching an urgent application after urgent application on the same ground for the same relief,” MisuZulu said.
The king said the applications were a “tirade of false accusations and innuendo unsupported by evidence in what can only be considered to be calculated to nullify my identification and recognition as the Zulu king”.
MisuZulu said Mbonisi and other royals had not provided proof that they were members of the “core” royal family and had standing to approach the court.
Mbonisi was the half brother to MisuZulu’s late father, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, and although his membership of the Zulu royal council was “averred”, it “has never been proven”.
MisuZulu said Madondo had ruled that Mbonisi was “on a frolic of his own” and had continued with this “vendetta” by using the courts, time and again, to present the same facts under the guise of urgency.
The Zulu king asked the court to implement the Vexatious Proceedings Act to deal with the “abuse of court proceedings” by his uncle.
“I have been subjected to the costs, harassment and embarrassment of unmeritorious litigation, which was rejected by the court,” he said.
“The conduct of Prince Mbonisi in this regard … brings into play the public interest that the functioning of the courts and the administration of justice proceed unimpeded by the clog of groundless proceedings.”
MisuZulu said he would seek an order barring Mbonisi and the other royals from bringing further applications against himself and the leadership of the ITB without prior screening and approval by the court.
The king said he would prove that Mbonisi had repeatedly brought baseless applications which had no possible hope of success to “harass” him and try to force him out of office.
The order would not be sought to limit Mbonisi’s constitutional rights, but to “protect me as the iSilo from facing further baseless litigation”.
This would protect the dignity of the throne and would be in the best interests of the Zulu nation, the king said.
Turning to Mbonisi’s claims that he was corrupt and under the “control of drug mules”, the king said the allegations showed a lack of regard for the Zulu monarchy and were not based in any fact.
MisuZulu said Mbonisi had failed to provide “any shred of documentary evidence in support of the alleged unlawful and reckless conduct on my part”.
The averments in Mbonisi’s founding papers “consist of sweeping statements of a defamatory nature” and were relying on “rumours and speculation”, the king said.
MisuZulu said the claims that he had abused drugs and alcohol were “simply untenable” and “reckless” and were “certainly not in the interest of the royal family”.
Likewise, the claim that he had registered 13 companies to loot the ITB’s coffers was false, MisuZulu said, adding that they had been dormant for some time and that he had also resigned as a director after taking the throne.
The king said that although Mbonisi and the other royals claimed to be acting out of concern for the Zulu kingdom, they “appear to be driven by ulterior motives and not in the interest of the royal family and the monarch”.
Mbonsi’s lawyer, Barnabas Xulu, said his side would file their responding papers in the matter by 25 March, after which the matter would go for oral argument.