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| King Goodwill Zwelithini |
The Cape Times newspaper on Sunday quoted the king as saying that the National Party, dominated by whites, had built a powerful government with the strongest economy and army on the continent, but then came "this so-called democracy" in which black people started destroying the gains of the past.
The king said history would judge black people harshly as they had failed to build on the successes of the apartheid regime, the report said.
He also reportedly said black people "loved to use matches" to burn down infrastructure built during apartheid.
In a response, royal household spokesperson Prince Thulani Zulu that the king's speech was misrepresented.
"The King was very appreciative of the fact that he has reigned during the time of the apartheid government and he's still living today during the time of democracy, and he is able to find out what was good in apartheid and what was bad," the spokesperson said.
"As much as he can even find out today what is good and what is bad about democracy. So he wasn't actually saying the times of apartheid were better ... there is nowhere the King talked about that," the spokesperson added.
Zwelithini is the reigning King of the Zulu kingdom under the Traditional Leadership clause of South Africa's republican constitution.
The Zulu is the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10-11 million people living mainly in KwaZulu-Natal Province.
This article was produced by the Xinhua News Agency, the official press agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua describes itself as the "information organ of the central government." Given China’s size and importance, GlobalPost publishes Xinhua’s press feed as a resource for its readers and makes no claims as to journalistic accuracy.
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