Monarch of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, King Goodwill Zwelithini of Zulu Land, who saw himself as the custodian of his people’s culture, has died aged seventy-two.
King Zwelithini, who was hailed by President Cyril Ramaphosa as a “visionary monarch”, died on Friday in a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal province.
A statement by the royal family said the king had been admitted to hospital last month to be treated for diabetes.
Though his role was largely ceremonial, King Zwelithini was revered by his people and had vast influence over millions of Zulus.
In his tribute, President Ramaphosa, himself a Zulu, praised the late monarch’s contribution to national unity and economic development in KwaZulu-Natal. and South Africa as a whole. The main opposition Democratic Alliance party described him as “a hugely important and influential figure on our political and cultural landscape for the past five decades”.
“Tragically, while still in hospital, His Majesty’s health took a turn for the worse and he subsequently passed away in the early hours of this morning,” Prince Mangosutho Buthelezi, founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party and traditional prime minister to the Zulu king, said in a statement.
Zwelithini was officially crowned the eighth monarch of the Zulu nation in 1971, after going into hiding fearing assassination when his father died in 1968.
In 1984, he revived the reed dance, a 19th century practice which sees thousands of bare-breasted maidens dance in front of the king to celebrate their beauty and virginity in the KwaZulu-Natal province.
He defended the decision by saying it helped stem pre-marital sex and the spread of AIDS.
King Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu was born on July 14, 1948, the year the National Party came to power and began its programme of racial segregation.
In 2018, he waded into South Africa’s contentious land debate, warning the governing African National Congress not to include territory under his control in a land reform drive which mostly targeted white-owned property.
The king also courted controversy in 2015, when several people were killed in anti-immigrant violence following xenophobic remarks made by him. He was later to describe the often murderous attacks as “vile”.
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