Prince Israel Mcwayizeni acted as the regent from 1968 to 1971 while the King took refuge in the then Transkei province of South Africa for three years to avoid assassination.

After his 21st birthday and his first marriage, Zwelithini was installed as the eighth monarch of the Zulus at a traditional ceremony at Nongoma on 3 December 1971, attended by 20,000 people.

[6][7] In the power vacuum created in the 1990s as Apartheid and the domination of the country by White South Africans was abolished, the King was increasingly drawn to partisan politics.

The Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) initially opposed parts of the new constitution advocated by the African National Congress (ANC) regarding the internal governance of KwaZulu.

Mandela and president De Klerk arranged a special meeting where it was agreed that international mediators would be called to try and sort out the issue of a king.

[9] Although Buthelezi was then serving as Minister of Home Affairs in South Africa's Cabinet, President Mandela's efforts to broker a reconciliation failed.

In 1989 he criticized the ANC leadership for not inviting him and Buthelezi to a rally welcoming back the Rivonia Trial defendants, who had been released after almost three decades of imprisonment.

As the constitutional monarch of the kingdom of KwaZulu-Natal, he was head of the Ubukhosi, the state-recognized institution of Traditional Leadership that consists of local chiefs.

[12] He has also traveled abroad extensively to promote tourism and trade in the West for KwaZulu-Natal, and to fundraise for Zulu-supported charities, often accompanied by one of his queens consort.

[14] In January 2012, while speaking at an event commemorating the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of Isandlwana, the King caused controversy with his statement that same-sex relations were "rotten".

[19] Contending that he was free to say what politicians were not, he asked that foreigners please return to their native lands since, he maintained, South African nationals in diaspora had not gone on to open businesses in host countries.

[19][20] These observations were made during a time of growing unease between South Africans and non-nationals, violence having erupted in Soweto in January and spread to KwaZulu-Natal, resulting in three deaths.

[19] The Democratic Alliance's spokesman, calling for a public retraction and apology, criticised the remarks as "highly irresponsible", while a SAHRC official labelled them xenophobic in light of recent attacks on foreigners.