Princess Thembi Zulu-Ndlovu, one of the key members of the AmaZulu royal house, who was challenging AmaZulu king MisuZulu kaZwelithini’s ascendancy to the throne has died.
Zulu-Ndlovu was the sister to the late King Zwelithini kaBhekuZulu and aunt to reigning king MisuZulu.
According to her brother Prince Mbonisi Zulu, she died on Friday morning at a hospital in Newcastle.
“She hasn’t been well for a long time and she has been in and out of hospital. Princess Thembi succumbed to her death on Friday morning,” said Prince Mbonisi.
Zulu-Ndlovu shot to prominence when she became the leading voice opposing the appointment of her brother’s child to be the next AmaZulu monarch. Instead, she wanted Zwelithini’s son born out of wedlock, Prince Simakade kaZwelithini, to be the next king of the AmaZulu nation.
She died at a time when the faction known as the royal dissidents had already filed an application to the Gauteng High Court challenging President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision declaring that MisuZulu was the reigning king of AmaZulu. The faction contends that the king cannot be nominated through a will, but that the core royal family and the royal council appoint the next king.
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