JOHANNESBURG – Goodwill Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu, the king of South Africa’s Zulu nation, who looked after his people from the apartheid era in a modern democratic society, died on Friday in the eastern coastal city of Durban. He was 72.
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the king’s prime minister, has announced the death at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital. He did not lead a case. King Zwelithini was admitted there last month to be treated for diabetes.
He was born on 14 July 1948 and 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 the colonial government. The eldest son of King Cyprian Bhekuzulu ka Solomon and his second wife, Queen Thomozile Jezangani ka Ndwandwe, were educated at the Bekezulu College of Chiefs and then privately taught in the Khethomthandayo royal palace.
He was crowned in 1971, three years after the death of his father; subsequent assassination attempts forced him to hide. When he was able to take the throne, his role was largely ceremonial as head of a quasi-independent homeland under the apartheid government.
King Zwelithini nevertheless tried to assert himself politically, and clashed with Mr. Buthelezi, who is also his cousin and who was at the time the government-appointed administrator of the KwaZulu homeland. In 1979, King Zwelithini tried to form his own political party to kill Mr. To challenge Buthelezi, but he was approved and his salary was cut. The two men later reconciled, while the king put his weight behind the political party of Mr. Buthelezi threw in.
As violence in the KwaZulu region threatens to advance South Africa’s transition to democracy, the king was sometimes a voice of peace and disagreement in the negotiations.
He spoke with the leaders of the African National Congress, which would become the ruling party in South Africa after apartheid, about sanctions against the apartheid government. He also demanded that the bloodshed that almost plunged South Africa into a civil war be ended when supporters of the ANC and Mr. Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party clashed before the 1994 election.
The king was instrumental in ensuring the recognition of South Africa’s royal houses as the new constitution was written. It was largely seen as a concession by Nelson Mandela and the ANC after the king threatened to boycott the election.
Thereafter, as the traditional leader of nearly 20 percent of the South African population, King Zwelithini maintained political influence, with subsequent presidents and political leaders showing him. Sometimes his remarks caused upheaval, as in 2015, when his remarks about ‘foreign citizens’ led to xenophobic violence in which at least seven people were killed.
“We are asking foreign nationals to pack up their belongings and return to their lands,” the king said during a rally in Durban. He later condemned the violence, saying his comments about migrant workers and unemployment among South Africans had been taken out of context.
King Zwelithini, who as the Zulu leader allocated the bulk of a compensation fund that the government set aside for South Africa’s traditional leaders, was one of the country’s largest landowners. He opposed plans to nationalize and redistribute land.
For many, he was a living symbol of Zulu history and a link between the people who fought British colonialism and a people who retained their language and culture in a post-apartheid South Africa.
“The king was the voice of reason, and it is important that, regardless of the political changes, he was a constant that rose above,” said Mkhuleko Hlengwa, the 33-year-old spokesman for the Inkatha Freedom Party. “We are Zulu, no matter who is in government.”
It is not yet certain who will succeed the king. His eldest son, Lethukuthula Zulu (50), was killed in his house in Johannesburg in November and five people were charged.
King Zwelithini is survived by six wives and 26 children.