THE love life of South Africa’s Zulu king has the country agog – and has scandalised his socially conservative subjects as he messes with tradition by seeking a divorce.
Polygamy is part of Zulu culture, but King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has taken the unusual step of going to court to divorce his first wife, Queen Ntokozo kaMayisela.
“Everyone was puzzled. People were not expecting the king to go so far as to file for divorce,” Prof Gugu Mazibuko, a cultural expert at South Africa’s University of Johannesburg, told the BBC.
“In Zulu culture, there is no divorce. You are not supposed to chase away your wife,” she said.
Regarded as the “lion of the nation”, the Zulu king is the custodian of age-old traditions that place marriage and polygamy at the heart of royal success.
His role within South Africa may only be ceremonial, but he remains hugely influential, with a yearly government-funded budget of several million dollars.
The monarch – who grew up in neighbouring Eswatini, studied in the US and came to the throne in 2021 – seems to court controversy.
His coronation was challenged in court by his elder half-brother, who has been trying to snatch the crown from him.
His second marriage appears to be shaky, his attempt to take a third wife hit the buffers and there are also reports of another dalliance with a young princess.
However, the 50-year-old’s troubled personal life used to be discussed in hushed tones – that is until he filed divorce papers in December.
Prof Mazibuko acknowledged that historical records appeared to suggest that a Zulu monarch in the 20th Century had divorced one of his queens, but it had been a “top royal secret”, given royal divorce is not the norm.
“If a marriage does not work out, the wife will still live in the king’s homestead. She will be given her own space. She will not have a relationship with the king, but she and her children will be well-cared for.”
It was just before his accession to the throne – following the sudden death of his father and mother four years ago – that the then-Prince Misuzulu married Ntokozo Mayisela.
The two were already a couple and had two children together, but according to another cultural expert, Prof Musa Xulu of the University of Zululand, the decision to marry appeared be be hurried.
“It seems as though he felt he could not be a king without a wife,” he told the BBC.
Queen kaMayisela came from an “ordinary family” – as many of the wives of Zulu kings do – in a small mining town in KwaZulu-Natal province.
It was as a cabaret singer performing at a restaurant in the coastal city of Durban that she caught the royal eye, the academic said.
Her senior status in the family was made clear at the king’s state coronation in December 2022 when she sat by his side.
But her position is now under threat, with the monarch saying in court papers that they have not lived as husband and wife for at least year and their marriage has irretrievably broken down.
The palace followed this by sending out invitations for the king’s wedding to a new bride, Nomzamo Myeni, set to take place in late January. The bride-price, known as lobola, had already been paid in cattle – a prized asset in Zulu culture.
Queen kaMayisela did not take any of this lying down, instituting separate court action to halt the wedding, which was postponed as a result.
Her argument was that the king – known to his subjects as “Ingonyama”, meaning Lion – would be committing the offence of “bigamy” without first “converting” his civil marriage to her into a traditional Zulu marriage.
But the judge threw out her case, saying she had had a “turnaround” in attitude as she had already agreed her husband could take other wives.
He noted the monarch had already done so – marrying Nozizwe kaMulela, the MD of Eswatini Bank, in 2022.