Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu

Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu (27 July 1948 – 12 March 2021) was the King of the Zulu nation from 1968 to his death in 2021. He became King on the death on of his father, King Cyprian Bhekuzulu, in 1968 aged 20 years. Prince Israel Mcwayizeni acted as the regent from 1968 to 1971 while the King took refuge in the then Transkai province of South Africa for three years to avoid assassination. After his 21st birthday and his first marriage, Zwelithini was installed as the eighth monarch of the Zulus at a traditional ceremony at Nongoma on 3 December 1971, attended by 20,000 people. Zwelithini died on 12 March 2021, aged 72, after reportedly being admitted to hospital for diabetes-related illness. During preparations for his funeral, the king's traditional prime minister, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, announced that he had died of COVID-19. Political role In the power vacuum created in the 1990s as Apartheid and the domination of the country by White South Africans was abolished, the King was increasingly drawn to partisan politics. The Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) initially opposed parts of the new constitution advocated by the African National Congress (ANC) regarding the internal governance of KwaZulu. In particular, the IFP campaigned aggressively for an autonomous and sovereign Zulu king, as constitutional head of state. As a result, the IFP abstained from registering its party for the 1994 election until the king's role in the new democracy is clarified. Mandela and president De Klerk arranged a special meeting where it was agreed that international mediators would be called to try and sort out the issue of a king. As a result, the IFP was registered for the elections. It demonstrated its political strength by taking the majority of the provincial votes for KwaZulu-Natal in the said election.