Chiefs say no to courts after royal's suicide

Power struggles within royal families should be resolved by traditional authorities, not the courts, an Eastern Cape traditional leader said this week.

Nkosi Phathekile Holomisa was speaking after Daludumo Mtirara, a member of the Thembu royal family, committed suicide last week when a faction he led abandoned its application to halt the coronation of Azenathi Dalindyebo, son of jailed Thembu monarch Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo.

Last Friday Azenathi was installed as regent while Dalindyebo serves a 12-year jail sentence for a string of crimes. The family has been split over who should act in his place - the jailed king's wife Nokwanda, his brother Mankunku Mthandeni Dalindyebo, or Azenathi.

Last Wednesday Mtirara's faction, which backed Mankunku, abandoned an urgent court bid to interdict Azenathi's coronation. Mtirara was saddened by the development, said the faction's advocate, Matthew Mpahlwa.

Dalindyebo himself was unhappy with Azenathi's coronation and did not give his blessing to his son's wedding last month, the king's spokesman Mthunzi Ngonyama said.

"The king told [him] he should not be acting king, but he did not listen. So when Azenathi asked for his permission to get married, the king wrote to him saying, 'Go ask permission to those people who you think are better father figures than I am'," said Ngonyama.

The king was concerned that forces in the royal family were using Azenathi, 24, for their own gain and he wanted him to focus on his studies.

"The king even wanted to interdict the wedding, but there wasn't enough time. What shocked us the most was Azenathi's wife throwing a spear at the kraal, declaring the Great Place their house.

"You can't go to your father's house and claim it while he is still alive," Ngonyama said.

Azenathi's spokesman, Zwelenqaba Dumisani Mgudlwa, disputed Ngonyama's version. He said Dalindyebo had in fact endorsed the coronation of his son.

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Holomisa, a senior traditional leader and ANC MP, said it was troubling that the Thembu clan had taken their dispute to the High Court in Grahamstown.

Such differences should be resolved by royal families themselves or be handed over to senior traditional leaders as people who understood custom, he said.

"Even before they come to our courts we encourage our people to use family structures to resolve their issues," he said.

"That's what we expect of the royal family of Dlomo. If they are not able to resolve them, they are not supposed to take them to the government, or structures of government like courts and commissions" using Roman Dutch law.

Most of the fights occupying the courts emanate from the Nhlapo commission set up by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2004.

Its task was to resolve lingering disputes about royal titles that erupted after the apartheid government stripped the authority of traditional leaders seen as anti-establishment and replaced them with proxies.