JOHANNESBURG – Goodwill Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu, the king of South Africa’s Zulu nation, who led his apartheid-era people into a modern democratic society, died on Friday in the coastal city of Durban. He was 72 years old.
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the king’s prime minister, announced his death at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli hospital. He did not declare a cause. King Zwelithini was admitted there last month for treatment of diabetes.
Born on July 14, 1948, he was the eighth monarch of the Zulu nation, the largest ethnic group in South Africa, and a direct descendant of the Zulu warrior kings who fought against colonial rule. The eldest son of King Cipriano Bhekuzulu ka Solomon and his second wife, Queen Thomozile Jezangani ka Ndwandwe, was educated at Bekezulu College of Chiefs and then took private lessons at the Khethomthandayo royal palace.
He was crowned in 1971, three years after his father’s death; subsequent assassination attempts forced him into hiding. When he was able to take the throne, his role was largely ceremonial as head of an almost independent homeland under apartheid.
Even so, King Zwelithini tried to assert himself politically, clashing with Buthelezi, who is also his cousin and who at the time was the administrator appointed by the KwaZulu homeland government. In 1979, King Zwelithini tried to form his own political party to challenge Buthelezi, but he was sanctioned and his salary was cut. The two men later reconciled, with the king supporting Buthelezi’s political party.
During the 1980s and 1990s, while violence in the KwaZulu region threatened to interrupt South Africa’s transition to democracy, the king was sometimes a voice of peace and dissent in the negotiations.
He fought with the leaders of the African National Congress, which would become the governing party in post-apartheid South Africa, over sanctions against the apartheid government. He also called for an end to the bloodshed that nearly plunged South Africa into civil war as supporters of the ANC and the Buthelezi Inkatha Freedom Party clashed before the crucial 1994 election.
The king was instrumental in ensuring the recognition of South African royal houses when the new constitution was written. This was widely seen as a concession by Nelson Mandela and the ANC after the king threatened to boycott the election.
Subsequently, as the traditional leader of almost 20 percent of South Africa’s population, King Zwelithini maintained political influence, with subsequent presidents and political leaders showing deference to him. Sometimes his statements caused an uprising, as in 2015, when his comments about “foreigners” led to xenophobic violence in which at least seven people were killed.
“We ask foreigners to pack their belongings and return to their countries,” said the king at a rally in Durban. He later condemned the violence, saying that his comments on migrant workers and unemployment among South Africans were dismissed.
King Zwelithini, who as a Zulu leader received most of a compensation fund that the government reserves for South Africa’s traditional leaders, was one of the country’s largest landowners. He opposed plans to nationalize and redistribute land.
For many, it was a living symbol of Zulu history and a link between the nation that fought British colonialism and a people that maintained their language and culture in post-apartheid South Africa.
“The king was the voice of reason and it is important that, regardless of political changes, he was a constant who stood up,” said Mkhuleko Hlengwa, the 33-year-old spokesman for the Inkatha Freedom Party. “We are Zulu people regardless of who is in government.”
It is not yet certain who will succeed the king. Her eldest son, Lethukuthula Zulu, 50, was murdered at his home in Johannesburg in November, and five people were charged.
King Zwelithini leaves six wives and 26 children.