THOUSANDS of mourners attended the politically charged funeral on Saturday of Zulu prince Mcwayizeni Ka Dinizulu, the first member of the Zulu royal family to join the African National Congress. Hundreds of security forces kept watch as the mostly ANC-affiliated mourners swept into Nongoma, the heartland of the rival Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party. Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the deceased prince’s first cousin, stayed away from the funeral. The prince had joined the then recently unbanned ANC in 1991 in a move away from the majority Zulu IFP. Both parties share power in troubled KwaZulu-Natal province after the IFP won 34 seats in the June 2 general elections, to the ANC’s 32. The parties have been involved in a bloody, grassroots-level power struggle in KwaZulu-Natal, which since 1985 has cost some 12000 lives.