King Misuzulu KaZwelithini. (Photo by Gallo Images/Darren Stewart)
Less than a month after Zulu king Misuzulu kaZwelithini appointed his prime minister Thulasizwe Buthelezi, cracks in the relationship between the two senior Zulu nation leaders are beginning to show.
As the Zulu nation’s prime minister, Buthelezi, who delivered his maiden speech to the Zulu nation on Monday, believed that one of his roles was to handle the king’s communication.
Further, Buthelezi said the king had already given him the green light to oversee all communication from his majesty’s office.
However, it has since emerged that the king did not share his prime minister’s view on the matter of communication – which he believed should be handled by his official spokesperson, Prince Afrika Zulu.
In a media statement issued by the office of the Zulu King on Tuesday evening, Misuzulu kaZwelithini made it clear that the duties of Buthelezi do not include those of communication.
“In the interest of providing clarity, we wish for the general public to be assured that the Office of Communications and Stakeholder Relations remains duly appointed and supported by His Majesty the King and is entrusted with the vital task of facilitating effective communication between the Throne and its esteemed stakeholders – both internally and externally,” read the statement from the King’s office.
Buthelezi, who was appointed two weeks ago to replace the late Zulu nation prime minister Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi – who died in September – is also the IFP Mayor of the Zululand Municipality.
Despite the new Zulu prime minister’s assertion that he worked closely with the late prime minister and familiarised himself with the role of a Zulu nation prime minister, the king’s statement suggested that there might be things around the role of the Zulu nation prime minister which Thulasizwe Buthelezi did not understand.
“The new incumbent has not yet had the benefit of being fully upraised of the multiple functionaries within the Office of His Majesty. It ought to be therefore expected that he assumed that the Prime Ministerial office subsumes all other departments,” the statement from the king’s office said.
This article first appeared in The Witness.