Legal challenge to dethrone South Africa’s Zulu king heads to court

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The battle for the throne of South Africa’s ethnic Zulu nation has reached the courts as a faction of the royal family seeks to dethrone the king after less than a year. The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria is hearing legal arguments this week in the royal succession battle between King Misuzulu kaZwelithini and his half-brother, Prince Simakade Zulu, who believes he is entitled to be king. The Zulu nation is the largest ethnic group in South Africa with an estimated 12 million Zulu-speaking people. They are acknowledged for resisting British colonialism in the early 1800s and the Zulu king is arguably the most influential traditional leader in South Africa.