The health of the most powerful traditional monarchy in South Africa, the Zulu king, was unknown on Sunday after his spokesperson denied claims that he had been admitted to the hospital.
After the passing of his father, Goodwill Zwelithini, 48-year-old Misuzulu Zulu took the king amid a sour dispute over the royal succession.
The Zulu prime minister, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, announced in a press release late on Saturday that the monarch had been admitted to a hospital in the neighboring nation of Eswatini after becoming ill.
The king believed he was being poisoned, after the sudden and unexpected death of one of his close advisers on Saturday, he said.
Douglas Xaba “passed on quite suddenly and that there are suspicions that he was poisoned”, said Buthelezi. “When his majesty began to feel unwell, he suspected that he too may have been poisoned.”
The king preferred treatment in Eswatini because “his parents had both received treatment in South Africa and subsequently died”, he said.
A private hospital near to the nation’s royal residence was under intense surveillance, many police sources in Eswatini told reporters. Later on Sunday, a Zulu spokesperson refuted reports that the royal was receiving medical attention.
“It appears that there is an orchestrated agenda and a desperate narrative to communicate defamatory and baseless claims of his najesty’s ill-health,” the spokes person told newsmen.
“The king underwent precautionary and thorough medical exams in a context of Covid and after the sudden death of his close adviser.”
Even though the Zulu nation’s monarchs lack executive authority, they have a significant moral impact over the more than 11 million Zulus who make up about a fifth of South Africa’s 60 million people.
Six women and at least 28 children were left behind by King Zwelithini, who passed away after more than 50 years in power. Zwelithini’s third wife, whom he named as regent in his will, is the mother of Misuzulu, his first child.
The abrupt death of the queen, however, a month after Zwelithini and the queen’s will, which named Misuzulu as the new king, did not sit well with the other family members.
