Is he really a prince? No one seems to know, but most would agree his conduct has been less than regal in recent years.
After a meteoric rise to prominence in the early 1990s, Sifiso Zulu’s penchant for the playboy lifestyle saw him sink to new depths this week as he ignored court instructions to hand himself over to begin his prison term for the 2008 road deaths of two young women.
With an arrogance that beggared belief, Zulu partied late into the night at his luxury rented flat in the Point Bastille building on Friday night, seemingly indifferent to his perilous situation. Yesterday, when police arrived at his flat with a court warrant for his arrest, they found him gone. They caught up with him only later yesterday.
Last Sunday the Tribune reported Zulu was already in contravention of the law, as Judge Piet Koen had on Thursday overturned his application in the Pietermaritzburg High Court for leave to appeal against his three-year sentence for vehicular manslaughter.
Contacted then for comment, Zulu professed to be unaware of the ruling. His lawyer announced he would be applying to have his bail extended pending a petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal, but when Zulu failed to report at the Durban Magistrate’s Court by 10.30am on Friday, he waived the right to a bail extension hearing.
A court official, who cannot be named, said Zulu’s arrogance was “beyond belief”.
“Prince” Sifiso Zulu was once the poster boy for black economic empowerment, and courted by the captains of industry. At one time he held directorships of no fewer than 29 companies, and was to be seen at every high-profile event.
His sartorial style saw him nominated as one of SA’s top 50 best- dressed men in 2005.
In a 2004 interview, Zulu said he had racked up “some university” after matriculating, but would not elaborate.
At the time he was serving as project facilitator for the Independent Projects Trust, and his CV stated that he had started his career with the office of the minister of public works, and had been appointed by the then minister of that department, Jeff Radebe, to his ministerial task team on the national public works programme.
With his star in the ascendance, Zulu was made national programmes manager of the community-based public works programme with a R1 billion budget at his disposal. His responsibilities included advising the minister and MECs on policy issues.
His efforts appear to have borne fruit because in 1996 the International Labour Organisation commended the programme as the best public works one in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
After leaving public works, Zulu went into the lucrative private consultancy business, and rapidly assembled an enviable list of clients in both the government and private sectors.
He advertised himself as an expert adviser on policy issues, commercial strategies and strategic communications. Among his clientele were the Office of the Presidency, the Ministry of Public Enterprises, the Ministry of Public Works and DaimlerChrysler. Other feathers in his cap were Mondi, AECI, Frankipile SA, Maxsteel, the Retail Apparel Group and Denel.
In 2002, Zulu helped facilitate a multimillion-rand deal with UK forwarding company CCS. The next year he won the contract to install and run Durban’s new pay-and-display parking meters.
The awarding of the contract was challenged by a rival bidder, who made a formal complaint to the municipal ombudsman’s office.
Zulu was by then president of the Durban Chamber of Commerce, and ideally placed to take advantage of further business opportunities.
He continued to insist on his royal lineage, a claim not contested by King Goodwill Zwelithini until he disgraced himself in the 2008 road deaths incident.
As president, Zulu notoriously defended then ANC executive committee member Visvin Reddy’s R44 000-a-month pay for his role as “street children consultant”.
In 2005, the high-flyer was appointed by then city manager Michael Sutcliffe, a friend of long standing, to head the board of uShaka Marine World.
Collapse
Having always professed that his favourite holiday destination was the non-stop party city Rio de Janeiro, Zulu went into partnership to establish Durban’s first cocktail bar on the beach, the Beach Café.
He announced plans to roll out the concept up the North Coast “to Ballito and beyond”.
He cemented relations with President Jacob Zuma by hosting a R250-a-head fund-raiser for him at the Beach Café. By now he was on the council payroll, to the tune of R42 000 a month, as a “consultant on city events”.
Zulu was on a roll, but the dice were about to fall - and not in his favour.
When his luxury BMW streaked through a red robot that fateful night, his house of cards began to collapse.
Although close friend Bheki Cele said he visited Zulu at his Point Waterfront flat at around the time of the crash, the high and mighty quickly severed ties with him. The royal household also denied he had any blue blood.
While Ithala attempted to recoup almost R5 million from Zulu in loans to him, he declared himself a “man of straw”, claiming he had resigned his directorships and was bankrupt.
Zulu’s Friday night revels appear to be over, for now. - Sunday Tribune