Nation mourns King Goodwill Zwelithini, a man who revived age-old Zulu customs
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DURBAN â Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini who died today at the age of 73, saw it all during his lifetime.
A son of King Cyprian Bhekuzulu and Queen Thomozile Ndwandwe, the king assumed the throne at the young age of 23 (in 1971) before thousands of well wishers.
His crowning came at a time when there was infighting in the royal house and he had to be summoned to abandon schooling in order to fill the vacancy within the throne.
Through those years he ruled in the background â some said at the mercy of the IFP which was in charge of the then KwaZulu. His prominent role came in the early 1990s when there were negotiations between the apartheid government and various political parties like the ANC and the IFP.