Durban — King Misuzulu’s legal fees are likely to accumulate further after the royal faction challenging his appointment demands R2 million as security for its legal costs should the king lose the battle.
The application, which is known as rule 47, was made by the faction led by the king’s patriarchal father Prince Mbonisi during the hearing for postponement in the Gauteng High Court on Wednesday.
Both Prince Mbonisi and Prince Simakade’s factions did not oppose the postponement application by the king and the matter was eventually postponed to sit from October 16-18.
In the affidavit filed by Prince Mbonisi’s side, which was seen by the Daily News, he cited the king’s failure to pay his former legal firm Strauss Daly as the main reason he believed that a security fee must be paid to ensure that his legal team would be able to recover its costs should it win the matter with costs.
In arguing for the payment of a R2m security fee by the king, Prince Mbonisi’s legal team argued that the correspondence between the king and his former legal firm Strauss Daly made it quite plain, that the Second Respondent (king) has not paid for legal services and disbursements in this and other matters, and, further, that financial undertakings by and on behalf of the Second Respondent (king) were in instances misplaced and not honoured.
“The Applicants (Prince Mbonisi and Prince Simakade) have, and will, continue to incur immense expenditure in the process of defending the application, and will suffer severe prejudice if they are not able to enforce a favourable cost order against the Second Respondent. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the Second Respondent has failed to tender wasted legal costs in the instance where he has sought to delay legal proceedings of this magnitude at such an advanced stage.
“In light of the facts stated above, the Applicants aver that there are compelling reasons for the Second Respondent to furnish security for the Applicant’s legal Costs,” read the affidavit.
Prince Mbonisi confirmed that they had instructed their legal team to apply for rule 47, asking the court to hear their pleas for the security fee.
The king’s agent, Prince Africa Zulu of Onkweni Residence, said it was important to understand that His Majesty was a sitting king, and therefore it was the government's responsibility for any issues arising from any litigation in this process.
“The KwaZulu-Natal government through the office of the Premier by law is fully responsible for all His Majesty's legal costs, and I don’t understand why anyone would try to create an impression that His Majesty must be personally liable for any court up-front security costs. Let it be known that our king was installed through a legit constitutional process and will remain victorious as he was anointed by God Almighty to lead this great Zulu nation,” said Prince Africa.
The Premier’s Office has yet to respond to the matter.
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Daily News