Photo: Supplied via IOL / The Post
At the Bayede Diwali Festival in his Emashobeni palace at Pongola, the Zulu monarch asked Indians to come to the Reed Dance and Zulus to come to the Hare Krishna Ratha-yatra, and called for a joint front against youth unemployment, gender-based violence and “division on social media”.
PONGOLA, South Africa — King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, the reigning monarch of the Zulu nation, used a Diwali celebration at his Emashobeni Royal Palace on Friday, 23 October 2026, to call on Zulu people to take part in Durban’s Hare Krishna Festival of Chariots, the annual Ratha-yatra organised by ISKCON Durban, “to deepen understanding through shared cultural experiences”.[1] The appeal came alongside an invitation to the Indian community to join the Umkhosi Womhlanga, the Reed Dance, and a broader call for Zulu and Indian South Africans to deepen cultural ties and act together against social problems.[1][2]
The festival at the palace in Pongola, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was co-hosted by Prince Ishwar Ramlutchman Mabheka Zulu and the Sivananda World Peace Foundation. The King recalled the adoption of Prince Mabheka Zulu, the first person of Indian descent formally adopted into the Zulu royal family, as “an enduring bond between the communities”, and reaffirmed his role as royal ambassador for social cohesion and economic development.[1]
He praised the contribution of South Africans of Indian descent to the economy, honoured those who endured indentured labour under colonial rule, recalled the shared sacrifices of African and Indian communities against colonialism and apartheid, and said the festival showed “the Zulu people’s embrace of the Indian community”. He reaffirmed the social-cohesion mission of his late father, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu.[1]
Turning to the meaning of Diwali as a “row of lights”, the King spoke of Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile, of Mother Lakshmi as the goddess of prosperity and of the triumph of knowledge over ignorance, and drew parallels with the themes of renewal, purity and light in the Reed Dance and with the lighting of candles for ancestors. He connected these to the teaching of Ubuntu, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – I am because you are”, and to Swami Sivananda’s maxim, “Serve, love, give, purify, meditate and realise.”[1]
“Each one of us here today is a lamp.”
King Misuzulu kaZwelithini at the Bayede Diwali Festival, Pongola, 23 October 2026, as reported by The Post (IOL)[1]
Youth unemployment, gender-based violence, the erosion of moral values and division on social media were, he said, forms of darkness to be answered with service, education, care and the creation of opportunities, so that KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa become places “where diversity is a shared strength and everybody has a place”.[1] A report in The Witness summarised the address as a call for Zulu-Indian unity, and Scrolla.Africa reported him urging the two communities to unite for business opportunities.[2][3]
The Festival of Chariots on the Durban beachfront is ISKCON’s largest public event in Africa and one of the best-known Ratha-yatras outside India. A public call from the Zulu King for his people to attend it, made at a Hindu festival in his own palace, is a rare endorsement from a traditional African authority.
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