The KwaZulu-Natal government threw a R1,5-million party on the occasion of the handing over of the R5-million Ondini palace to King Goodwill Zwelithini last week.
The party, held in Ulundi last Friday, was attended by the Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi, among other dignitaries.
Mahlathi Tembe, the spokesperson for Premier Lionel Mtshali, said the cost included that of cattle and catering for about 30 000 people who attended the function — held in a tent.
A prominent dignitary who attended Friday’s function, however, put the number of guests at between 3 500 and 4 000, not the 30 000 claimed.
The dignitary, who did not wish to be identified, said: “The tent that they had put up for the function did not have the capacity to hold even 10 000 people.”
He said the organisers even roped in children from a nearby school to increase the numbers.
The ceremony included speeches, traditional songs and dances. The dignitary described the function as “lacklustre” and said: “There was nothing extraordinary about it.”
Food was apparently served late in the afternoon.
The palace — Zwelithini’s seventh — is a redbrick building with five bedrooms, a laundry, library, two double garages and several guest houses with gardens.
Tembe said the handing over of the palace signified the “restoration of the dignity to the Zulu people”.
Ondini palace, the traditional home of the Zulu king, was destroyed by British forces in 1879, during the reign of King Cetshwayo. Buthelezi rebuilt the palace in 1993, when he was head of the erstwhile KwaZulu homeland.
But the palace could not be handed over because of a political feud between Buthelezi and Zwelithini.
The rift between the Zulu king and Buthelezi, who is also the traditional prime minister of the Zulus, was only healed after the two swallowed ashes in Nongoma last year. The king, seen as important as provincial and national elections approach, is being wooed by Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party.
Among the dignitaries who attended the function was the Prince of Thailand, whose name, Mtshali’s department said, has been lost in the records of the function that have gone missing. Also at the function was a chief from Ghana and the Zambian ambassador to South Africa, S Mubukwana.
Attempts to get a breakdown of the cost of the party from the royal household were not successful.