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A royal marriage of convenience
OCT 1, 2012 | MATTHEW MPAHLWA |

In the midst of the ongoing infighting for the AbaThembu chieftaincy,

details have emerged of how a 2002 marriage to a Zulu princess was
allegedly used to elevate the status of one of the chiefs who wanted to
become king.

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A SHAM: King Goodwill Zwelithini's second daughter princess Nandi Zulu's marriage
lasted only two years. Picture by Master Mosunkutu

The wedding brought together two royal families with different

cultures and traditions.
The Zulu princesss, Nandi, is the daughter of Queen Buhle Mathe and
the first daughter of Zwelithini to tie the knot.

Chief Mfundo Bhovulengwe Mtirara is the son of Xhosa Chief

Zwelakhe and Nobantu Mtirara and a nephew of former president
Nelson Mandela.
The news that the marriage was a strategic move on Mitirara's part
came to light when Sunday World was investigating claims that the
AbaThembu nation paid the ilobola for the marriage.
However, it seems the money for the ilobola was a loan from Meeg
Bank in Mthatha.
This was revealed this week by Thabo Jennings, a palace confidante,
who solicited the loan and led the Abathembu delegation to the Zulu
royal palace and was refuting claims that the AbaThembu nation paid
the ilobola.
He said one of the royal houses was used as security to secure the loan.
"Not a single AbaThembu chief contributed towards ilobolo. I
personally made an overdraft from the bank and transported the cattle
with my trucks.
"No assistance whatsoever came from the other chiefs," he says.
AbaThembu's King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo is disputing Mtirara's
right to be chief.
Shortly after Mtirara tied the knot with Nandi Zulu, Dalindyebo
alleged that an influential group of people formed a cabal, whose
influence was used to solicit funds from government to build a palace
for the newlyweds in preparation for Mtirara to take over the throne.
Mtirara says the Eastern Cape local government and traditional affairs
department paid at least R1m to refurbish his house.
Dalindyebo alleges in affidavits in the Mthatha High Court that the
"dummy marriage could not stand reality" (sic) as the couple parted
ways after two years.
Sources close to Mtirara's family in Maty'engqina Great Place near
Mthatha say Nandi left without even notifying the AbaThembu royal
family.

When Sunday World tracked her down she said: "No, I am not the wife
of Abathembu anymore."
Asked to comment further, Nandi said: "I don't have a mandate to
speak about these issues.
"If I continue to speak to you I will be punished by my family.
"The issues you're asking me about are personal, so they do not
concern you. Leave them alone."
Nandi says she left her ex husband eight years ago and she finds it
strange that he still refers to her as his wife.
Nandi flatly refuses to comment on whether she is aware that her
marriage was one of convenience in order for Mtirara to ascend the
throne.
"Please follow protocol. I will say no more."
When asked about the breakdown of his marriage, Mtirara denied he
and his wife were estranged.
"I'm still married to my Princess Nandi, she is still my wife both legally
and customarily and I don't know what you are talking about," he said.

Unhappy Princess Flees Her Aristocrat Husband

The fairy-tale marriage of King Goodwill Zwelithini's daughter
Princess Nandi and Tembu chief Mfundo Mtirara has all but collapsed.
The Zulu princess stormed out of her tempestuous two-year marriage
after a fall-out with the Tembu chief over his alleged infidelity.
Nandi discreetly left Mtirara's home at Maty'engqina Great Place near
Mthatha last year and moved back to her parents' KwaDlamahlahla
royal palace in Nongoma.
She has since been spotted without Mtirara at numerous royal
functions in Durban, including her sister Princess Nombuso's wedding
to businessman Seshi Chonco in Pietermaritzburg in July.

Despite repeated denials by two senior Zulu princes that Nandi had
returned home, the Sunday Times tracked her down at Kwa
Dlamahlahla this week.
But she refused to comment on her marriage and slammed the phone
down.
Her mother, Queen Bu hle MaMathe, Zwelithini's second wife, also
declined to comment, referring all queries to the king.
Prince Derrick Zulu, a senior member of the Zulu royal family who
speaks on Zwelithini's behalf, said this week: "I can't comment on that
because I don't know anything. I've not seen Nandi."
But another Zulu princess confirmed that Nandi had returned to Kwa
Dlamahlahla last year after falling out with Mtirara.
"The problem started when Nandi confronted him [Mtirara] over
rumours that he had impregnated another woman," said the princess.
"That was the last straw for Nandi."
She said the collapse of Nandi's marriage had been kept a closely
guarded secret because of its perceived embarrassment to the royal
family. Zulu custom regards a bride who walks away from marriage,
regardless of the difficulties, as shameful.
"That explains why everyone is so mum," said the princess.
"It's even worse for someone like Nandi, who is from the royal family,
because for her to walk out of marriage would be seen as a failure on
her mother's part to teach her to persevere."
Nandi was Zwelithini's first daughter to marry and her union with
Mtirara, a great-grandnephew of former President Nelson Mandela,
was seen as a strengthening of relations between Zulus and Xhosas.
Mtirara - who paid 120 cattle and two horses as lobolo and bought his
bride a R65 000 diamond ring - also flatly refused to comment,
saying: "I don't discuss my private life with the media."
But a senior member of the Tembu royal family, who asked not to be
named, said the couple were no longer living together.

"She [Nandi] left last year. We just heard that she had left, but he
[Mtirara] never told us anything."
The insider also confirmed that the royal couple had fallen out over
Mtirara's alleged siring of a child with another woman.
"I heard about that but I don't know when it happened," said the
insider.
Mtirara is said to have led a senior delegation of Tembu elders to Kwa
Dlamahlahla to beg his wife to return. But his efforts were futile.
Another senior member who was part of the lobolo negotiations said:
"It's true that Nandi has left. She was not even at the funeral of her
father-in-law, Chief Zondwa Mtirara, in July this year and no one from
the Zulu royal family was there.
"There have always been problems in their marriage. You cannot
blame Nandi for walking away from this marriage. It just didn't work."
Another insider in the Zulu royal house confirmed that a delegation
had visited KwaDlamahlahla.
"But I don't know what the outcome of their meeting was."
The couple tied the knot at St John's Anglican Cathedral in Mthatha in
December 2002 in a glamorous wedding.
Mandela, his wife, Graa Machel, King Letsie III of Lesotho, axed
Deputy President Jacob Zuma and IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi
all attended the nuptials, which caused a stir when the Eastern Cape
government forked out R1-million for the refurbishment of Mtirara's
palace.

Wedding unites tribes

Umtata's wedding of the year
Nelson Mandela donned the traditional dress of his tribe for the first
time in more than 40 years on Saturday for a wedding celebration
uniting three of South Africa's most powerful tribes.

Mandela, 84 and walking with difficulty, briefly upstaged the bride by

wearing a calico tunic and wrap trimmed in black, an elaborate bead
necklace and a beaded headband.

"He has not worn this traditional attire of his Tembu tribe since before
he went on trial," his spokesperson Zelda la Grange told Reuters.
She was referring to the 1962 trial that began Mandela's 27-year
imprisonment. Mandela was convicted of treason and sentenced to life
but was freed in 1990 to begin the talks that led to South Africa ending
white apartheid rule in 1994.
Mandela was the guest of honour for the event honouring his greatgrandnephew, Chief Nfundo Bovulengwe Mtirara of the Xhosa nation,
and Princess Nandi Zulu, daughter of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini
and his Swazi wife, Queen Buthle Zulu.
The bride and groom, who met at college, were married on Friday in a
civil ceremony but celebrated with all the traditional spectacle of the
heritages involved.
"There is great significance in the uniting" of the nations, said
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party and
minister of home affairs.

Mandela was born to be chief of the Tembu tribe, part of the Xhosa
nation, but ran away from home as a young man to avoid an arranged
marriage and begin his fight against apartheid.
Saturday's celebration took place outdoors in a field overlooking
Mandela's Qunu birthplace and close to the Mtirara family homestead
where he was raised and tended cattle.
The Zulu king, dressed in a leopard-skin cape and a skirt of animal
tails, faced Mandela, Deputy President Jacob Zuma, King Letsie of
Lesotho and Tembu Chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima.
About 50 bare-breasted Zulu princesses, including the bride's sisters,
danced for about two hours in turn with scores of royal warriors
carrying cowhide shields and spears.
After the ritual slaughter of a white goat near Mandela's chair outside
a cattle pen, Xhosa maidens danced for their new queen while elders
sang praises to Mandela, the Zulu nation and the six bullocks given to
Zwelithini by the groom's parents.
The bride, who wore a rough black skirt, a leopard-skin cape, ankle
rattles and a veil of white beads over her face, formalised the wedding
when she plunged a spear into the ground at the entrance to her
husband's cattle pen. When he drew out the spear, she was formally
installed as Queen of Matyeningqina Great Place.
Umtata comes to a standstill for wedding of the year
Umtata came to a standstill on Thursday afternoon when the Zulu
royal house motorcade paraded through the streets ahead of a
celebrity wedding that will see the royal Zulu and Nelson Mandela's
Thembu houses united.
Umtata came to a standstill on Thursday afternoon when the Zulu
royal house motorcade paraded through the streets ahead of a
celebrity wedding that will see the royal Zulu and Nelson Mandelas
Thembu houses united.

King Goodwill Zwelithini and his three wives arrived in the Eastern
Cape to witness his first daughter Princess Nandi (25) walking down
the aisle to marry Thembu Prince Mfundo Bhovu lengwe Mtirara
(32) the great-grand nephew of former president Mandela.
The couple will tie the knot at the St Johns Anglican Cathedral on
Friday followed by a traditional wedding at the Great Place near Qunu
on Saturday. The groom is scheduled to arrive at the church at
10.30am, accompanied by a convoy of the Thembu warriors. Shortly
afterwards he will be joined by his bride, who is expected to arrive in
an elegant style.
Thembu royal house representative Vuyisa Ngxishe said they had
already paid a lobala of 114 cattle and two horses with their full regalia
last December.
The event is expected to draw the attention of a number of
distinguished guests including President Thabo Mbeki, Mandela, and
Home Affairs Minister and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu
Buthelezi. Insiders thought the wedding would help to revive the
history of traditional royal blood marriages in the country.
Prince Mtirara has been recently crowned as the Matyengqina
traditional authority chief. He is the first of the four Chief Zondwas
sons who was the former Transkei Defence Force army general. He is
qualified building contractor and his wife to be is a graduate involved
in social responsibility programmes.