Goodwill Zwelithini died at the age of 72 after a long hospital stay with diabetes. King of Zulu since 1971, he was South Africa’s most influential monarch. A king without power but with moral authority for 12 million South Africans.
as reported from Johannesburg, Romain Song
His words counted. King Goodwill Zwelithini did not have his tongue in his pocket. For the better, as when he called on South Africans to wage war on rape in a country plagued by sexual assault. And for the worse, when he urged strangers to pack their bags full xenophobic riots in 2015.
Goodwill Zwelithini was a controversial king in the image of the rituals he reintroduced. Circumcision among boys despite health risks and the equestrian dance, a virginity test and a ceremony in which thousands of young women parade topless and offer the king a tube. A celebration of purity to fight AIDS and teenage pregnancies.
Goodwill Zwelithini was the guardian of both Zulu culture and his own interests across his ethnicity. This large landowner was against the distribution of the three million hectares he controlled on his territory, but inherited from the apartheid regime that fell in 1994.
After half a century of rule, the Zulu king leaves the image of a “highly esteemed monarch”, according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. His successor, among one of his 28 children, is not yet known.
Deeply saddened by the news of the passing of the Animals of the Church, His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu. pic.twitter.com/2mtYLnRQ5w
– Cyril Ramaphosa ?? #StaySafe (@CyrilRamaphosa) March 12, 2021
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