Durban – Senior Zulu Princess Thembi Zulu-Ndlovu, has passed away.
The sad news was confirmed to the Daily News by her gutted half-brother, Prince Mbonisi kaBhekuzulu, a short while ago.
Zulu-Ndlovu was a half-sister to the late King Goodwill Zwelithini and an aunt to King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, whose ascendancy to the Zulu throne she disputed to the very end.
Wheelchair-bound for years, the senior princess was sickly and she has been in and out of hospital.
When the Daily News called her phone, a female picked it up and said she had gone out and dropped.
Later, Prince Mbonisi confirmed the news, saying he had been informed.
"Oh My God (who told you?)... yes it is true. I have been informed about the sad news," Prince Mbonisi said to the Daily News late on Friday.
The princess first shot to prominence in March last year when she called parallel press conferences in the run-up to the burial of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini, angering Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the monarch's traditional prime minister who was driving the funeral programme.
During the memorial service of the late King, she raised eyebrows when she said only God knows who the next King of the Zulu nation will be.
That was the beginning of her challenge of King Misuzulu's ascendancy.
Last week she said that she attended the king's members in Newcastle, but she still didn't recognise him as king.