Pietermaritzburg – In another legal setback Queen Sibongile Dlamini-Zulu of the Zulu monarch, lost her last-minute bid to amend her court papers so that she could directly challenge the other five marriages of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini who passed away in March last year.
This significantly weakens her case where she wants to inherit 50% of the late king’s estate (believed to be in the region of R200 million) on the basis that she was the first wife and was married in civil rites and in community of property in 1969.
In her founding court papers, she said the rest of the queens and royal children would inherit the rest of the estate and was not seeking to have them evicted from their various palaces.
On Tuesday the Queen and her legal team suffered their first legal setback when KwaZulu-Natal Deputy Judge President Isaac Madondo, ruled that her court papers had no request to rule whether the other five marriages of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini were valid or not.
BREAKING NEWS: Zulu Queen, Sibongile Dlamini-Zulu, has lost her bid to amend her court papers so that she could challenge the 5 marriages of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini. This significantly weakened her case where she wants to inherit 50% of the late King's estate. @IOL
Madondo said by the mere fact even in her court papers she said they should be allowed in their palaces, even if they have no equal share in the estate, it was an approval of their marriage.
As such, it means their marriages to the late king were equal to hers.
Delivering the latest judgment on Wednesday on whether to allow the amendment or not, Judge Madondo said the application to amend the court papers was made very late.
He said reasonable reasons should be advanced for the application to amend the queen’s court papers and in the queen’s case argued in court by lawyer Nigel Redman, no reasons “at all” were advanced for the court to give it a nod.
Earlier, Durban based legal expert, Mpumelelo Zikalala of Zikalala Attorneys said the court was not likely to okay the amendment because that would prejudice many others and delays would affect the entire Zulu nation and their cultural events which have been hampered as a result of the royal dispute.
Zikalala said it would be wise for the queen to withdraw the defective case because if she presses ahead after the latest loss, she was doomed and would be defeated.
Although the queen has lost her application to amend the defective court papers so that she could challenge the other five marriages of the late king, the second part of the royal case would go ahead later on Wednesday as scheduled.
In this second part of the case, the queen’s two daughters, Princess Ntantoyenkosi and Ntombisuthu are challenging the validity of the will of the late king on the basis that one of the signatures is forged.
King Misuzulu, the disputed heir who is already on the throne and his traditional prime minister, Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi, are once again opposing this application through their lawyer, advocate Griffiths Madonsela SC.