Award-winning columnist, Bhekisisa Mncube, writes a poignant tribute to the fallen king saying our grief has reverberated across the world.

Dear Mr President, His Excellency Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa. Just like you did this week, let me press pause on our politically charged yet one sided generational dialogues in deference to the giant baobab tree that has fallen, His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuZulu.

It is truly a sad moment for the Zulu nation and monarchists across the world. Truly the sun has set at midday in the Zulu Kingdom as the nation mourns one of its finest monarchs of our times, His Majesty King Zwelithini. Isilo Samabandla sikhotheme! The king is dead. Long live the king!

Our grief has reverberated across the world, with kings and queens sending their heartfelt condolences to the Zulu royal household. In recognition of this unprecedented grief (it hasn’t happened in over 50 years), you, Mr President, ordered that the national flag be flown at half- mast at every flag station in the country until the evening of the funeral service. The funeral service (converted into a memorial service due to sensitive royal matters) itself was accorded a special official funeral category one, a rare occurrence for someone outside of the aristocracy of the anti-apartheid revolution.

Mr President, the king was more than the sum total of a monarch, an archaic institution for the republicans. He was a unique institution for many among us who long for our ways of life before the British Empire implemented its “civilisation mission”, a euphemism for grand theft and mass murder.

His Majesty was a fountain of knowledge on Zulu culture and customs, a reservoir of wisdom on traditional governance, and as you have said, Mr President, a developmental-orientated monarch. He contributed no small part to the normalisation of relations between the IFP and the ANC.

His Majesty lent his name and weight to fighting the scourge of HIV/Aids, championing the most successful of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government’s health programmes, namely the Medical Male Circumcision project, among others. The king disapproved of his people living off hand-outs from the dwindling fiscus of government.

Mr President, His Majesty was a family friend, and unwittingly he became my friend too and a political ally as I battled falsehoods and scarecrows relating to Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s unrelenting meddling in the affairs of the Zulu royal household.

I met His Majesty for the first time in 1987. It was a fleeting affair. King Zwelithini visited my father, Mflathelwa Mncube, while I was at the Ondini Cultural Museum in Ulundi, where my father worked at the time. This relationship forged with the king in my teens came in handy when the Zulu royal household’s cracks became visible like the giant Pietermaritzburg road potholes in the early 2000s.

As a journalist, I wrote a series of articles for The Witness on the rift between the king and his traditional self-professed Prime Minister of the Zulu nation and Prince of KwaPhindangene, Buthelezi. As the rift deepened and I persisted in breaking the stories, the king sent his envoys to find me. We had a private moment in a Durban hotel. His Majesty was full of praise for my reporting on the growing rifts in the Zulu royal household. The king shared his long-time unease and pain about Buthelezi’s meddling into the Zulu royal household affairs. Since those heady days, I met the king many times in my various capacities until I worked as a public relations manager at the Royal Household Trust. Strangely it was a trust created to look after the monarch’s best interest. For me, it was like a coming-of-age experience.

I penned the famous speech delivered in honour of the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, and Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker Bowles, during their visit to South Africa, which coincided with the king’s celebration of a magnificent 40-year reign.

The last time I had a chat with His Majesty in person was in 2011 during the king’s birthday. I went to one of his Nongoma palaces to deliver a birthday cake. The king thanked me profusely for my service to the Zulu Kingdom. In remembering our king, we acknowledge his frailty as a human being. Still, his death doesn’t give us a one-sided opportunity to desecrate his memory through lies and half-truths ostensibly in the name of freedom of speech.

Wena wendlovu! Bayede!

This Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu is written by Bhekisisa Mncube a former senior Witness political journalist, the 2020 regional winner in the Opinion category of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award, and author of The Love Diary of a Zulu Boy, a memoir. This opinion piece was first published in the Witness (News24).