[4] Having been a minor but independent polity, they fell under the suzerainty of the Mthethwa when Shaka Zulu ascended to the throne with the support of his suzerain, King Dingiswayo.

[12] Although South Africa is a constitutional republic, the Zulu ethnolinguistic group is afforded formal representation, inter alia, through the King's participation in the National House of Traditional Leaders,[11] who continues to act as the highest ceremonial and religious leader of the Zulu nation whose duties include hosting the Umkhosi Wokweshwama and Umhlanga Reed Dance.

[2] Although formal recognition by the President of South Africa is required for the King to enjoy his emoluments and assume his powers,[19] accession is by a form of agnatic primogeniture which gives preference to the sons of the Indlunkulu (great wife) in which he has some discretion to choose his successor.

After demonstrating military prowess, he successfully challenged Prince Sigujana and ascended to the throne of the Zulu Kingdom, succeeding King Senzangakhona, his father.

[5] With the assistance of Andries Pretorius, Mpande assassinated and succeeded King Dingane in 1840 at the Hlathikhulu Forest following the Battle of Magonqo, the same year that the British amnexed the Natalia Republic and formed the Natal Colony.

His son, Cetshwayo was the de facto monarch from 1856, but Mpande's reign formally ended in 1872 with his passing due to health complications suspected to be induced by his alleged morbid obesity.

Due to the costs of running a colony and the preference of preventing the extant Boer Republics (i.e., the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) from acquiring a coastline on the Indian Ocean, the British government directed that the Governor of the Natal Colony, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, annex Zululand but retain the aristocratic structures that would allow for native self-management, thereby enabling the Zulu monarchy and its tributary chiefs to retain their relative autonomy under British imperial rule.

He was arrested in 1906 following accusations that he fomented the Bambatha Rebellion against the British and was subsequently released by Prime Minister Louis Botha of the Union of South Africa in 1908 and passed away in 1913.

[28] Due to a protracted dispute, Prince Arthur Edward Mshiyeni acted as Regent from Solomon's passing in 1933 to Cyprian Bhekizulu in 1948[30] who was in turn succeeded by Goodwill Zwelithini in 1968.

[11] Formal recognition by the government entitles the King to emoluments provided by the state and with the authority to exercise powers vested in the Crown by legislation.

[2] In terms of the customary law of the Zulu Nation, a vacancy in the throne arises when the monarch is deceased, abdicates, or is declared permanently incapacitated.

The coronation (ukugcotshwa or annointing) of the Zulu king is the formal religious and secular ceremony that is required to solicit the benevolence of the gods and to unify the people behind the appointed sovereign.

As the Zulu people and lands were colonised and annexed into the Boer Republics cum British Colonies of Natal and the Transvaal, the powers of the King were circumscribed by treaties and legislation.

[9] With the advent of a democratic state following the end of apartheid and in seeking to restore the dignity of the indigenous people, the new government recognised and delineated a formal role for the Zulu and other monarchs.