SAMKELO MTSHALI and ZAMA NGCOYA

A lack of consultation by the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Office in matters concerning the Zulu Royal Household appears to be at the centre of King Misuzulu KaZwelithini’s shocking diatribe against the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Office this week.

In Ulundi during a closed briefing with the Amakhosi (chiefs)from the province regarding issues of the Ingonyama Trust, King Misuzulu voiced his displeasure about the treatment he was being subjected to by the Premier’s Office.

The King accused the Premier Nomusa Dube Ncube’s Office of controlling him and rendering him a “puppet”.

In a scathing rebuke of the premier, King Misuzulu said: “Even my father passed away while complaining about this Office. Unfortunately, I inherited the same Office which my father used to complain about.”

He told the traditional leaders that he was not in charge of his own office, and that it was controlled in Pietermaritzburg by the premier.

However, a senior KZN ANC insider, with intimate knowledge of the situation, said: “It’s not about trying to control him. The Premier's Office and the entire KZN government is badly managed.

“She (Dube Ncube) did not seek His Majesty's wisdom on matters of the Royal Household before making an announcement when she presented the Budget Speech for the Premier's Office. That was reckless.

“The issue is the lack of proper consultation about the overall functioning of the Royal Household, how it functions, who is responsible for what and what should be done to ensure its effectiveness,” said the insider.

Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his national working committee (NWC) who arrived in the province on Friday, handed more than 10 cows to the king, as a sign of respect.

The ANC insider said that, although the visit was not about the King’s views on the Premier’s Office, such matters would have been ventilated during the NWC’s meeting with the king.

The NWC was visiting the province to assess several issues that had been recently flagged as problematic.

Speaking in Durban yesterday, Ramaphosa said that the meeting came at a vulnerable time and it afforded the ANC an opportunity to feel the pulse of the organisation in the province.

He was presented with a report from the eThekwini region which he said gave an overview of current state of the municipality.

Ramaphosa said that it indicated that there was a political focus and a commitment to the implementation of the ANC policies and programmes.

Shifting his focus to international affairs, he said the United States was still one of South Africa’s largest trading partners and that it could not be ignored and should be dealt with on a serious note.

This was in reference to the US ambassador Rueben Brigety’s allegation this week that the Russian ship that docked in Cape Town in December had loaded arms on to its vessel.

“So, we have said that if they have information, please, submit it to us. We are setting up an inquiry process that will be headed up by a retired judge. We want them to look at it because it is a serious matter that we want to be looked into,” he said.

Ramaphosa said this was being done to demonstrate that South Africa was a sovereign and independent country.

He said that Brigety had since spoken to Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Naledi Pandor and apologised for his utterances.

Ramaphosa said he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about an unrelated matter, in which they discussed the AU Russian summit and encouraged that the conflict be resolved through negotiations. He said he had a similar conversation with the Ukrainian president.

“A group of African leaders have been working quietly to see how best Africa can put up an initiative to try and get the two parties to speak so that the conflict can be resolved. We will reveal the details in a few days of what those will be,” he said.

He added that Africa had also been suffering due to the conflict with the prices of commodities such as oil going up.

Attempts to get a comment from the Premier’s Office by the time of publishing were unsuccessful as questions sent the communications team were not answered.