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Inkhosikati LaDube
(Picture: Facebook)
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Inkhosikati LaDube, the 12th
wife of King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of Swaziland / eSwatini, has
died, aged 31.
No details of the cause of
death have been officially released but newspapers in South Africa say she was
being treated for skin cancer.
The King chose Nothando
Dube to be his 12th wife in 2004 when she was
a 16-year-old schoolgirl. He noticed her when she was a finalist in the Miss
Teen Swaziland beauty pageant. King Mswati was aged 36 at the time.
The King has married at
least 15 times, but the exact number is considered a state secret. Another wife
Inkhosikati LaMasango died in April 2018, aged 37, reportedly
following an overdose of pills.
Others of the King’s wives have reportedly escaped from him and moved abroad.
Unintentionally, during her
life LaDube exposed some of the worst tendencies of King Mswati. In 2010 she
was caught in an
adulterous affair in a room at the Royal Villas hotel, Ezulwini with
the then-Swaziland Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ndumiso
Mamba.
Mamba was a childhood
friend of Mswati. The King was on an official visit to Taiwan at the time.
The affair was kept secret
from the Swazi people. In Swaziland all broadcast media are under
state-control. Of the two daily newspapers, one is in effect owned by King
Mswati and the other consistently censors itself when reporting about the King
and his family.
Media outside Swaziland
reported the affair and its aftermath fully. A palace source told AFP, the international
news agency, that LaDube would dress in a military uniform to slip out of the
Lozitha palace and meet Mamba in a hotel room. AFP quoted a palace source
saying, ‘She allegedly got into her room and changed into her uniform and
walked straight to the gate and no one bothered to ask where was this soldier
going. In no time a car was there to pick the “officer” up and whisked her to
Royal Villas about 10 kilometres west of the Lozitha Palace.’
Photographs of Mamba
captured by police hiding under the bed at the hotel room circulated in South
African newspapers and
on the Internet.
Mamba who like the Prime
Minister and all government ministers had been personally appointed by King
Mswati, quit his post.
City Press in South Africa reported that Swaziland’s military
agents had been on the trail of the adulterous pair for several months. LaDube
was placed under what amounted to house arrest and was not
seen in public for a year.
Mamba was at first arrested but not charged with an offence. He has kept a low
profile in Swaziland.
In July 2011, the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South
Africa reported LaDube was ‘begging’ to be rescued from house arrest. It
reported LaDube had
been restricted to her royal residence in July 2010. She told the Mail & Guardian that she has not
seen or spoken to the King since and that none of the members of the royal
family had confronted her about the allegations, which she denied.
LaDube said the royal security guards told her she was not allowed to see or interact with her family and friends.
‘My side of the story was not heard. Ever since that scandal happened, we haven't been talking with this man that I married. Things have been bad and now they are worse. I really, really want out and I can’t, he is just not letting me go. It's like I am in prison; I am under 24-hour surveillance,’ she said.
‘My friends and family have been banned from seeing me and I really feel like I don't want to be here anymore because I feel like I am in jail. This is not healthy and I can't live like this forever and I see no point of sticking around.’
She claimed she had endured abusive treatment from security guards. ‘Every time I want to go somewhere the security guards become aggressive with me. It happens about once a week, when I try to go somewhere. They literally hit me, they kick and they punch me. I am not allowed to go anywhere or see anyone. I can't even see a doctor. If I am sick or anything, they have to come to me. My family is not allowed to speak to the King. I am also not allowed to see him. How am I not allowed to see the man that I married?’
At about the same time the Swazi Shado blog published a report that seemed to contradict LaDube’s account. It said that she had been seen in public for the first time in about a year and gave an interview on fashion tips to the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland.
LaDube said the royal security guards told her she was not allowed to see or interact with her family and friends.
‘My side of the story was not heard. Ever since that scandal happened, we haven't been talking with this man that I married. Things have been bad and now they are worse. I really, really want out and I can’t, he is just not letting me go. It's like I am in prison; I am under 24-hour surveillance,’ she said.
‘My friends and family have been banned from seeing me and I really feel like I don't want to be here anymore because I feel like I am in jail. This is not healthy and I can't live like this forever and I see no point of sticking around.’
She claimed she had endured abusive treatment from security guards. ‘Every time I want to go somewhere the security guards become aggressive with me. It happens about once a week, when I try to go somewhere. They literally hit me, they kick and they punch me. I am not allowed to go anywhere or see anyone. I can't even see a doctor. If I am sick or anything, they have to come to me. My family is not allowed to speak to the King. I am also not allowed to see him. How am I not allowed to see the man that I married?’
At about the same time the Swazi Shado blog published a report that seemed to contradict LaDube’s account. It said that she had been seen in public for the first time in about a year and gave an interview on fashion tips to the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland.
In
November 2011, the
Sunday Times newspaper in South
Africa reported LaDube
had been kicked out of the royal palace following a fight with a security
guard. She said she pepper-sprayed him in the eyes to protect herself.
It added she was ordered to
‘immediately leave the palace’ by royal governor Timothy Mthethwa, ‘who was
accompanied by other senior members of the royal family’.
LaDube, who was aged 23 at
the time, told the newspaper she had had an argument with a security guard who
refused to let her out of the palace. She wanted to take the youngest of her
three children, aged two, to hospital after she had injured herself while
playing - but the guard said she was not allowed to leave.
The matter was reported to
the Queen Mother who, the Sunday Times
reported, apparently decided that LaDube had been disrespectful and had to be
kicked out.
In December
2011, Independent newspapers
in South Africa reported she had ‘been dumped at her maternal
grandmother’s home in Hhohho’.
It added, ‘She has been separated from her children,
the youngest being two years. She has no food and the house she was dumped in
has no bedding.’
It also reported LaDube was the third of King Mswati’s
wives to leave the palace. She followed LaMagwaza and LaHwala, who went to live
in South Africa.
It reported, ‘LaMagwaza was accused of having a steamy
sexual relationship with a South African toy boy. Sources claimed that she was
sex starved, as the King would not visit her.
‘At the height of the sex scandal, she was granted
permission to visit her family home at Mbekelweni in central Swaziland and
never returned. She is reported to be living a prosperous life after marrying
an SA tycoon with whom she has a child.
‘LaHwala was also neglected by the King who would deny
her conjugal rights for six months at a time.
See also
Swazi King’s torrid life
with wives
Swazi sex scandal and
polygamy
‘Help rescue Swazi King’s 12th wife’
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