Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's reign lasted more than 50 years. Picture: Gallo Images
Scores of people in Nongoma, north of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), defied Covid-19 protocols and the national alert level one lockdown as the late king Goodwill Zwelithini’s remains were fetched from the mortuary to go back to Kwakhethomthandayo royal palace on Wednesday.
The king will be buried in the early hours of Thursday morning according to his wishes.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the royal family was doing all it could to avert overcrowding and prevent the breaking of the governments Covid-19 protocols.
“They are very conscious of the need to keep the numbers low to avoid having too many people coming into the royal household,” Mkhize said.
“They have restricted the number of people who go inside the houses, they have placed the chairs with quite a lot of distancing. I went into one of the marquees and one of the princes said ‘don’t touch the chair they have actually been put apart so that it must save our lives’.”
However, outside the palace, there has been controlled chaos as scores of people sang and danced all the way to the mortuary to fetch the king’s remains.
Regiment leader Mlandeni Nhleko told the media on Tuesday regardless of Covid-19 regulations restricting the number of people allowed to attend the ceremony, the regiments would proceed with their plans in preparation for the king’s burial on Wednesday night.
Videos of Nhleko pledging with regiments to flock in their numbers to the ceremony of bringing the king’s body home were making the rounds on social media.
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“It is our right to accompany our king. For a very long time we have been accompanying the king to many places with regiments and when we have to do it for one last time we are being stopped,” Nhleko said.
Mkhize said the problem with scores of people descending to the palace was that this was not an organised event and the royal house had no control over who comes to pay their last respects or not.
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