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What did they set him up to do? They set him up on drugs and started taking photos. This is South Africa. Why did Ramaphosa plan to put the king on drugs and why did he get everybody to take photos of him and humiliate him. - Lienbenberg

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Sizwe sama Yende

President Cyril Ramaphosa has resorted to silence since diamond mogul and politician, Louis Lienbenberg, made sensational allegations that he set up Zulu monarch, King Misuzulu, on drugs to manipulate him.

Lienbenberg alleged last week that Ramaphosa also assigned some people to take photos of the king naked in the presence of a woman in a Johannesburg hotel.

The independent candidate made these remarks when he launched his campaign in Johannesburg last week. He started off by asking why the ANC did not have a Zulu in its top seven positions and insisted that Ramaphosa had to be removed. Liebenberg argued that the Zulus were one of the biggest ethnic groups in the country.

Lienbenberg said that former president Jacob Zuma had warned King Misuzulu not to go to the soccer world cup because it was dangerous as he was in a “fragile situation with his wife, his brother wanted to kill him and there were lots of killings in KwaZulu-Natal.”

However, he said, Ramaphosa managed to get the king into a hotel in Johannesburg.  

When South Africa hosted the world cup in 2010, King Misuzulu was still a prince and Ramaphosa had not become president.

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, did not respond to questions sent to him via WhatsApp. King Misuzulu’s prime minister, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, also did not respond.

“I went there, met Patrice Motsepe, greeted him, and went up. I found the Zulu king with another wife I did not recognise,” Lienbenberg explained.

“What did they set him up to do? They set him up on drugs and started taking photos. This is South Africa. Why did Ramaphosa plan to put the king on drugs and why did he get everybody to take photos of him and humiliate him?”

Lienbenberg said that this was the reason King Misuzulu did not go to his palace but stayed in Ballito. He alleged that Ramaphosa instructed KwaZulu-Natal premier to stop funding the king and he had to bankroll him and paid his workers.

Liebenberg does not indicate the time Ramaphosa did this, but he could only do this after becoming president and not in 2010.

“A Zulu king, a proud man, was humiliated in this fashion. Caught by drugs, and then they can do whatever they wanted with him. That’s why I went to Nkandla to find out by myself. That’s how I became friends with the king, but he suddenly disappeared because they had given him drugs and the fights with his wife and brother, the killings …all those things started,” he said.

There had been, so far, no known tensions between King Misuzulu and Ramaphosa until Lienbenberg’s allegations.

However, in KZN, the relationship between the ANC’s provincial leadership and the king has been taut.

In March, provincial ANC chairperson S’boniso Duma shocked many people when snatched the microphone from Buthelezi when he was speaking during the the 110th Commemoration of King Dinizulu.  This incident was interpreted as disrespect to the king.

KZN premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, threw the cat among the pigeons when she fired King Misuzulu’s senior cultural adviser and praise singer iNyosi Buzetsheni Mdletshe. 

Dube-Ncube said Mdletshe’s contract was terminated due to financial difficulties. She however changed her mind and said Mdletshe’s services would be used as and when the king needed them.

On his part, Mdletshe believed that his contract was terminated  because he refused to take orders from the ANC leaders.

In light of these incidents, the DA warned against the use of the king and the royal household to settle political scores. The party said that it had repeatedly stated that “the Legislature is a subject of the King – and not the other way round.”

The DA said that it had long called on the legislature to engage with King Misuzulu on the creation of a self-sustainable commercial agricultural industry, utilising the land he owned, and a tourism venture.

“In this way, the King and the Royal Household become their own decision-makers – instead of political parties in power making pronouncements for them. The move would also see the impact of His Majesty and the Royal Household’s financial needs on the Legislature minimised. This is the best and only way forward,” the party said.