R1.5m to exhume and rebury king’s mother

WISH GRANTED: King Goodwill Zwelithini’s recent request to the KZN legislature to have his mother, Queen Thomo Jezangani Ndwandwe, exhumed and buried in Nongoma has been granted. Picture: PHUMLANI THABETHE

Mlungisi Gumede

The provincial government and the eThekwini municipality will jointly contribute a total of R1.5m for the exhumation and reburial of the remains of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s mother, Queen Thomo Jezangani Ndwandwe.

The decision follows the king’s call during the opening of the provincial legislature earlier this year for his mother’s remains to be exhumed and reburied in Nongoma, the seat of the Zulu royal family in the province.

The king had been in the dark about his mother’s burial site until 2010 when it was discovered that she had been secretly buried at a cemetery in Wiggin’s Road Cemetery in Chesterville, Durban, after she had died of a short illness in 1958.

It is unclear exactly where the reburial will take place.

While the king prefers Nongoma, Durban Mayor Obed Mlaba would like to see the queen’s remains being reinterred in Durban for “heritage” reasons.