A dispute between King Misuzulu and the Ingonyama Trust Board has escalated after Zulu regiments (amabutho) entered the fray, forcing the closure of the board's offices in Pietermaritzburg on Friday.

The amabutho had planned to protest outside the offices, forcing CEO of the trust Adv Vela Mngwengwe on Thursday afternoon to issue a memo to staff members, informing them not to come to work on Friday, citing safety concerns.

The decision to not open the offices, led to the cancellation of the planned protest by amabutho, which they had said was intended to address what they labelled as disrespect for the king.

Zulu regiments commander Prince Vanana Zulu said they would continue with their programme of action of staging protests outside Ingonyama Trust Board offices.

Prince Vanana said it was not their aim to disrupt the board's operations but they want them to respect the king.

“Amabutho are angry that the board is not respecting the king,” he said.

Mngwengwe confirmed that he told staff not to report to work on Friday after they heard that amabutho were planning a protest outside their offices. He said the decision to close the offices was motivated by safety concerns for staff.

“We could not guarantee the safety of staff since there was going to be a protest in our offices. We all know how amabutho behave and it is hard to contain them when they are angry,” he said.

Mngwengwe accused the king of bringing the board into disrepute.

He said the king was being ill-advised by people who were telling him that he (the king) is the sole decision maker on the board.

“The king thinks he is the sole decisionmaker in the board which is not the case,” Mngwengwe said, adding that the powers are vested in the board not the king.

He said being the sole trustee of the Ingonyama Trust did not make the king the sole decision maker. “The king is part of the board, so he cannot instruct it on what to do.”

Mngwengwe said the impasse between the board and king emanates from him thinking he is the sole decision maker on the board. He said they had tried several times to resolve the squabble but the king was snubbing them.

Mngwengwe conceded that they had some land for R22m. He said they had sold a sugar cane farm in Umhlali in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal because it was a liability.

“This land was bought by the previous board. When we came, we established that it was draining the board financially and then we decided to sell it. Upon selling it, we found out that the king had allocated it to someone whom we evicted,” he said.

Mngwengwe said they told that person that the king had allocated the farm to him without following processes. He said the animosity between them and the king had developed after that incident.

The king had tried to disband the board but his decision was revoked by rural development and land reform minister Mzwanele Nyhontso.

Nyhontso apparently told the king that he had the power to disband the Ingonyama Trust Board.

Attempts to get comment from the king's spokesperson, Prince Simphiwe Zulu of KwaMinyamanzi Royal House, were unsuccessful.

In a statement on Thursday in which he invited the media to cover the protest, Prince Simphiwe said they wished to know why the board was disrespecting the king by taking serious decisions like selling his land without his consent.