Friday, 28 September, 2001, 10:36 GMT 11:36 UK
Swazi king takes eighth wife

King Mswati III's eighth bride was picked out at the annual reed
dance

By Thulani Mthetwa in Mbabane

King Mswati III of Swaziland has stunned the country by taking a
17-year-old schoolgirl as his eighth wife.

A formal visit by the king to the girls' parents was made at the
weekend completing the traditional wedding process, a source
confirmed to the BBC.

The marriage has attracted much comment as it comes just weeks
after the king imposed a five-year sex ban on young girls saying
he wanted to revive the old custom of preserving a young girl's
virginity as well as helping halt the spread of HIV/Aids.

Some girls told the BBC that by taking a teenage schoolgirl as
his wife the king was in effect undermining his own ban.

Any man found breaking the cultural ban called "umchwasho" is
either fined an animal such as a cow or will be liable to pay
about $160.

Ban

The 33-year-old king picked the schoolgirl called La Masango
during the annual reed dance in 1999.

She attends the Mjingo High School for Girls in the industrial
city of Manzini and is in the fourth form.

Meanwhile, another fiancé is already being groomed for the king.

She is also a young student who has been taken from her parents'
house to the royal family.

This means she no longer has to wear the traditional woven cloth
of unmarried girls which distinguishes them from married women.

As part of the chastity ban, young women under 19 years old are
not to shake hands with men nor wear trousers.

They are also expected to wear blue and yellow tassels at all
times.

The ban was last invoked in 1982 by King Mswati's father but was
not enforced following his death soon afterwards.


	-- The BBC News

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