Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has now irked a storm after he called for an urgent house of royals meeting.
The extra ordinary meeting is set to discuss Zulu king Misuzulu kaZwelithini and the Ingonyama Trust.
“As the author of the Ingonyama Trust and as an elder in the Zulu Royal Family and Nation, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi will be meeting with members of the Zulu Royal House on Friday to appraise them of current matters,” reads a short notice sent out by Buthelezi’s spokesperson, Liezl van der Merwe on Tuesday.
Agriculture minister Thoko Didiza announced the establishment of the new board, which will serve a four-year term, on Monday, with Linda Zama, a member of the interim board appointed by Didiza in 2020, as its deputy chairperson.
Didiza said she had appointed the new board in terms of the Ingonyama Trust Act, passed in 1994 to create the entity, in consultation with the House of Traditional Leaders, the Kwazulu Natal premier and the Zulu monarch.
Other members are amakhosi Israel Tembe, Phallang Molefe, Sibonelo Mkhize, Thandi Dlamini, entrepreneur Dandy Matamela, Nomsa Zulu and Lisa Del Grande.
The appointments come at a time when the king has stated his intent to ensure that the ITB and the Ingonyama Trust are open to greater public scrutiny and oversight and that they deliver on their community development mandate.
Didiza’s announcement comes despite a revolt against the monarch’s decision to replace Ngwenya with Mzimela by Ngwenya and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the king’s traditional prime minister.
Buthelezi is said to have declined to sign an affidavit in support of Misuzulu in the Pretoria high court challenge to his appointment as king by his rival, Prince Simakade Zulu, to try to force Ngwenya’s reinstatement.
The king last week wrote to Buthelezi accusing him of using the court case to try to manipulate him into re-appointing Ngwenya. The monarch said he was appointing a new legal team to represent him in the matter, which is being heard in Pretoria on 31 May.
Earlier this month, Buthelezi boycotted an imbizo convened by the king to introduce Mzimela to amakhosi. Buthelezi is understood to have threatened to resign over Mzimela’s appointment, something he denied at the weekend, and has called a meeting with amakhosi about the matter in Empangeni on Friday.
