JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s Zulu king, head of the nation’s most influential conventional monarchy, has undergone “thorough” medical examinations following the sudden demise of a detailed adviser, a spokesman stated Sunday, amid suspicions he was poisoned.
The king, who was visiting neighboring Eswatini, “underwent precautionary and thorough medical exams in a context of COVID and after the sudden death of his close adviser [Douglas Xaba],” defined Prince Africa Zulu, contacted by phone by AFP.
Misuzulu Zulu, 48, ascended the throne final 12 months after the demise of his father, Goodwill Zwelithini, amid a bitter feud over the royal succession.
Overnight on Saturday, the influential Zulu prime minister, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, stated in a press launch that the monarch had been hospitalized in Eswatini after falling unwell.
The king believes he was being poisoned, after the sudden and sudden demise of one in every of his shut advisers on Saturday, he stated.
Douglas Xaba “passed on quite suddenly and that there are suspicions that he was poisoned,” added Buthelezi.
The royal spokesman on Sunday assured that the Zulu king, often known as Misuzulu kaZwelithini, was “in perfect health and is not currently admitted to any hospital.”
The spokesman criticized what he stated was an “orchestrated agenda” to flow into “baseless claims of His Majesty’s ill health.”
Several police sources in Eswatini confirmed to AFP that there was heavy safety deployed at a personal hospital near the nation’s royal residence.
Although the title of king of the Zulu nation doesn’t bestow government energy, the monarchs wield nice ethical affect over greater than 11 million Zulus, who make up practically a fifth of South Africa’s inhabitants of 60 million folks.
King Zwelithini, who died after greater than 50 years in cost, left six wives and at the least 28 kids.
Misuzulu is the primary son of Zwelithini’s third spouse, who he designated as regent in his will.
The queen nevertheless died out of the blue a month after Zwelithini, leaving a will naming Misuzulu as the subsequent king—a growth that didn’t go down nicely with different relations.
The present king most popular remedy in Eswatini as a result of “his parents had both received treatment in South Africa and subsequently died,” stated Buthelezi.
Last September, one other counsellor of the Zulu king was shot useless in mysterious circumstances on the sidelines of a conventional ceremony. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
