TimesLIVE columnist in South Africa criticizes Zungu’s appeal to Zulu king’s authority
In South Africa, Sandile Zungu, a candidate for president of the South African Football Association, reportedly urged delegates from his home province to support him, warning that refusing to do so would mean defying Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini. Hogarth, a columnist for TimesLIVE, criticized this rhetoric ahead of the association’s leadership election.
Zungu, whom the publication describes as a Durban businessman and head of the AmaZulu FC football club, was one of the contenders for the SAFA presidency alongside incumbent Danny Jordaan. The columnist wrote that he had initially viewed a possible change in the organization’s leadership positively, but after reports of Zungu’s appeal to the monarch’s authority, he questioned whether Zungu would be a better alternative.
The king’s statement about the summit
In the same column, Hogarth mentioned King Misuzulu’s speech at the annual reed dance ceremony. According to the author’s account, the monarch told supporters that he was angered by the holding of a Southern African Development Community summit in Durban without an invitation for him. The king also said that he had considered sending Zulu warriors from hostels to disrupt the event.
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The following day, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, which organized the summit, stated that the king had been invited but no response had been received from him.
Court case and provincial agreement
The author also drew attention to testimony by former Defence Minister and National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula in her ongoing court case. According to the column, she said that she paid a contractor more than 1.5 million rand in cash for work at her private home because she finds it difficult to make electronic transfers.
Separately, Hogarth described a trip by Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane to sign a memorandum of understanding between the governments of the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape provinces. Mabuyane’s office presented the trip on X as one intended to promote regional energy development.
