DURBAN businessman and socialite Sifiso Zulu is a man on the run.
The police, who have been instructed to serve the 35-year-old with a notice of surrender issued by the Pietermaritzburg high court, believe he might be in Dubai.
Zulu has been "missing" since Thursday when he and his legal team did not show up to submit heads of argument to support his appeal against a three-year prison sentence for double culpable homicide.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson said yesterday Zulu's whereabouts remained a mystery.
"Zulu's case was struck of the court roll after he missed his court appearance. It was not reinstated and the court issued a notice of surrender against him," she said.
Once Zulu is served with the notice of surrender, he has 48 hours to hand himself over to court, she said.
Ramkisson said there was speculation that Zulu might have fled to Dubai.
Zulu's bail conditions did not stipulate that he had to surrender his passport and not leave the country, but his bail will be revoked for not appearing in court.
Ramkisson said Zulu's attorney, Thomas Kafu, and state advocate Johan du Toit SC were expected to meet yesterday to discuss the matter.
Zulu was sentenced to an effective three years' imprisonment last November when Durban regional court magistrate Thomas Nhleko found that he was drunk when he sped through a red traffic light and crashed his BMW X5 into a bakkie carrying members of the Soul's Harbour Ministries in 2008.
Zulu climbed the social ladder as chairman of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry and his popularity grew when he opened the trendy Beach Cafe bar on Durban's North Beach.
But the car crash changed everything.
He was arrested six months after the incident. As police swooped on his apartment he allegedly stabbed himself in the neck and chest before jumping out of the second-floor window of his beachfront apartment.
Shortly after the crash the Zulu royal family declared that Zulu was not a prince.
Prince Mbonisi, a spokesman for the Zulu royal family, told reporters Zulu claimed that his father, Banda, was the king's cousin. Mbonisi said the royal family did not know "anyone named Banda.
- Additional reporting by Nivashni Nair