Letter: An answer to royal wastage

King Goodwill Zwelithini kisses his new wife, Queen Zola Mafu, 27, his sixth wife, at their traditional wedding ceremony at Ulundi Regional Sports Ground in Ulundi. Photo: Bongani Mbatha

King Goodwill Zwelithini kisses his new wife, Queen Zola Mafu, 27, his sixth wife, at their traditional wedding ceremony at Ulundi Regional Sports Ground in Ulundi. Photo: Bongani Mbatha

Published Aug 1, 2014

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King Goodwill Zwelithini and his weddings are an extravagance the country can ill afford, says T Markandan.

Durban - Weddings are joyful occasions and none can be happier than the Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini.

For most of us a wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but for the Zulu king it was bride number 6 in a traditional wedding ceremony that could easily have been the biggest in the country – 100 cows slaughtered to feed the 100 000 guests, thousands of litres of Zulu beer to drink and make merry, the new queen arriving in Vivian Reddy’s Rolls-Royce, a deafening roar of motorbikes announcing the arrival of the king’s entourage in black limousines and bare-breasted maidens showing off their virgin wares to the throbbing beat of the drums.

Fortune favours the king. Though he gets older by the day, his brides get younger. He is 66 but Queen Zola Mafu is 27, young enough to be his daughter. She has been his concubine for 10 years and to prove her fertility, she bore him a son when she was just 18.

He is king of all he surveys: six wives; several palaces to house his growing family; a R300 million development near Enyokeni palace in Nongoma, escalating to R600m; and claims to tribal land in KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces. Another wife cannot be ruled out.

The truth is the king is an extravagance the country can ill afford. Why should the taxpayer fund the king’s lavish and wasteful lifestyle?

Ours is not a monarchy but a republic and we shouldn’t be funding an institution as obsolete as royalty. But traditional rulers are part of our inclusive democracy, and the ANC government wouldn’t want to alienate an important ally.

There is a way out of this problem. We could go back to feudal times. A registry should be set up of all who recognise King Zwelithini as their monarch and they should make regular contributions for his upkeep.

It would be interesting to see how many millions would sign up as the king’s subjects and pay their tithe every month to support his six wives and 28 children.

T Markandan

Silverglen

* The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.

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