Under South African law, a civil marriage must either be dissolved or converted to a traditional union before a man can take any more wives.

It is not clear why the marriage contract was not an issue when the king took a second wife, Queen Nozizwe Mulela-Zulu, back in 2022.

But according to South Africa’s weekly Sunday World newspaper, citing a letter Queen Mayisela had written to elders in the Zulu royal house, the couple had agreed to convert their marriage from civil to traditional.

The duo, given the option of either divorcing and remarrying or applying for the conversion by their legal team, apparently opted to do the latter but King Misuzulu “decided to change his mind” for unknown reasons, the queen reportedly said.

In rejecting Monday’s application to halt the king’s marriage to Nomzamo Myeni, Judge Bongani Mngadi said that as the queen had already consented to the idea that her husband could marry other women, she could not prevent a ceremony from taking place.

Despite the reported letter, as well as the king’s lawyer in court, saying that the wedding would not take place, contradictory statements have also emerged.

South African news site TimesLIVE is reporting that the bride-to-be said she knew nothing about the letter and as far as she understood, her wedding would proceed as initially planned.

According to another news site, IOL, which reportedly spoke to the couple, the king insisted that he loved Myeni and would “marry her by force”.