‘Poor’ King Goodwill wants much better gifts and party next year
The Zulu monarch also told guests he's a spirit medium and talks with God for the people.
FILE PICTURE: Zola Mafu of Swaziland is seen with Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini at their wedding in Ulundi in KwaZulu-Natal. Picture: Reinhardt Hartzenberg
Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini has reportedly informed his subjects they have to fund his 70th birthday soiree next year, hinting he cannot afford the desired junket because his household is cash-strapped at the moment.
This is despite the royal household having been allocated almost R50 million in this current financial year by the KwaZulu-Natal government for his upkeep.
According to Independent Media, during his “glittering gala party” to celebrate his 69th birthday held at the LinduZulu Palace in Nongoma, the monarch was showered with gifts that included expensive wine, “several head of cattle and horses.”
The monarch was also presented with four pregnant cows and a bull by EFF leader Julius Malema last week. The CIC handed the gifts to Zwelithini a few days before his party celebrated its fourth birthday in the Durban CBD.
Zwelithini is believed to have told his guests, who included top civil servants, clerics, media personalities and a Jacob Zuma benefactor, that he wanted a bigger celebration when he turns 70 next year – and his subjects would have to dig deeper into their pockets, as they were lucky to have him.
READ MORE: Malema buys Zwelithini four pregnant cows and a bull for his birthday
He apparently also told his Zulu subjects that he is, in fact, a spirit medium.
“Sometimes when I speak, it is not me but someone is speaking through me. I am being commanded and have to cough it out whether you like it or not.
“Even my birthday was very different, it was prophesied,” he reportedly said and impressed upon his attentive audience that sometimes God communicates with him and instructs him to pray or lay his hands on certain people to heal them.
And to expedite the answering of prayers, the king said he needed donations to build a church where he could pray. He reminded his subjects the “the nation has never been this blessed … I am fit as a fiddle, I do not have ailments. The whole nation is very lucky.
“My grandfather said the church will be called KwaNhliziyonye [the place of one heart].”
His brother, Thulani Zulu, is understood to have provided the details of how it will be built near the Dlamahlahla palace and be interdenominational.
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