Couple in Swaziland face up to 15 years jail under new sexual offences law for making love in front of a child

A couple in Swaziland / eSwatini might face up to 15 years in jail because they had sex in front of a child.

 

It is thought to be the first case of its kind brought under the new Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act.

Nkosinathi Mamba, aged 24, and Nonhle Ndlovu, aged 23, have been remanded on bail by Siphofaneni Circuit Court on 29 March 2019.

The court was told that the couple had sex in front of a nine-year-old who was accompanied by an elderly man. The man reported them to the police. They pleaded guilty at court, according to the Times of Swaziland.

They were charged under Section 41 of the SODV Act which came into force in 2018 and states it is illegal to compel or cause a child to be present or to watch that person while committing a sexual act.

The Times reported Mamba told Siphofaneni Circuit Court they thought the man and child were asleep.

It took about 10 years for the SODV Bill to go through the Swaziland Parliament before it was finally passed in 2018. Its main aim was to prevent violence against women but it also contained a number of clauses that offended traditionalists in the male-dominated society. Swaziland is ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. He had 15 wives before one ran away and another died.

Commenting in 2018 on the SODV Bill before it was passed the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said attitudes in Swaziland towards domestic violence demonstrated strong support for traditional gender roles, high levels of rape-supportive attitudes and tolerant attitudes for violence.

The ICJ said, ‘For example, only 51 per cent of men have been surveyed as believing that a woman may refuse to have sexual intercourse with her husband, while 88 per cent believe a woman should obey her husband and 45 per cent believe a husband has a right to punish his wife if she does something he deems is wrong.’

Other offences under the SODV Act include having sex with animals (maximum 10 years jail); having sex with a dead person (15 years jail) and flashing genitals or anus (5 years).

See also 

‘Urgent need to pass sex offences bill’

https://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2018/05/urgent-need-to-pass-sex-offences-bill.html

 

Dad rapes daughter (16) to test her virginity

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/dad-rapes-daughter-to-test-virginity.html

Wives say husbands can rape them

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/wives-say-husbands-can-rape-them.html

SWAZI KING: A COCK AND BULL STORY?

The traditional Incwala ceremony is in full swing in Swaziland, dubbed by a senior traditionalist leader as, ‘what defines us as a nation; it is what every Swazi should be proud of attending despite any odds’.

Traditionalists call Incwala the ‘national prayer’ and the most sacred of Swazi ceremonies.

But last year startling details of what actually happened at Incwala were widely circulated.

King Mswati III is said to take ‘muti’ (narcotics), and allows himself to be licked all over his body by a snake while drugged. In one part of the sacred ceremony King Mswati has sexual intercourse with a drugged bull; in another he publicly has sex with two of his wives.

The accounts of goings-on at Incwala were given by Sithembiso Simelane who said his regiment initiation name is Sukulwenkhosi. He was a member of the Inyatsi regiment for about 10 years and said he ‘got to see all the evil that takes place in the royal residencies and more especially at Ludzidzini royal residence (Lobamba)’.

Incwala is surrounded in secrecy so it is impossible to independently verify Simelane’s account. His description has never been publicly denied by the king or his traditionalists. But, Swazi people who offer up private opinions (it is dangerous in Swaziland to publicly criticise the king, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch) believe Simelane’s account is probably more or less correct.

This week National Secretary Nhlanhla Dlamini told the Swazi Observer, the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, ‘Attending Incwala is not a question of choice, whether it is Sunday, Christmas or any other national holiday; we are expected to attend the event without fail especially because as warriors we pledged to ultimately respect the King and country.’

 

Another leading traditionalist Prince Sigombeni told the newspaper, ‘Incwala is what defines us as a nation; it is what every Swazi should be proud of attending despite any odds. This is a national ceremony where we thank God and the ancestors for guiding and protecting us throughout the course of the year.’

Swaziland Incwala Ceremony Startling Account of King's Behaviour

SWAZI KING’S BESTIALITY WENT WRONG

Buggering a bull can be hazardous, as King Mswati III of Swaziland found at the Incawala ceremony.

Each year at the ceremony, dubbed the national prayer by traditionalists in the kingdom, the king, doped up on muti (traditional medicine used to cast spells or curses), sodomises a bull. But to facilitate this, the bull is itself subdued.

An eyewitness to the ceremony, Sithembiso Simelane recounts that one year things didn’t go to plan.

King Mswati is aided by young Swazi men who first beat the bull with their fists and hold it down so the king can mount the beast to insert his manhood into to its rear end.

‘It got out of its coma and all hell broke loose. It pushed him to the side and he started screaming for dear life until we managed to overpower the bull and its throat was cut to ensure it was dead,’ Simelane reports.

Once the king’s sperm is collected in this ceremony, it is poured into a horn ‘so that it can be used whenever the nation has been called to Sibaya or any national event.

‘The sperm is mixed with the food that is cooked for the people on those events or ceremonies so that the people can love the king so much and be very afraid of rising against him.’

Simelane, aged 38, was born at Lwandle, near Manzini, but now lives at Nkhaba in the Hhohho region of Swaziland with his wife and two daughters. He was a member of the Inyatsi regiment for about 10 years and says he saw ‘all the evil that takes place in the royal residencies and more especially at Ludzidzini royal residence (Lobamba)’.

Simelane gives a detailed account of activities at Incwala, considered to be the most sacred of Swazi traditional ceremonies, but it is also the most secretive.

At the official Incwala ceremony the king joins in dancing.

Simelane reports, ‘After the two hours of dance, the media is then chucked out of the royal kraal as some evil activities continue. This is the time for kulahlelwa ngeluselwa. Luselwa is a fruit cut from tintsanga. It is coated with strong muti and is thrown at one of the boys by the king. The boy, after it has been thrown at him, has to run faster than the king back to Inhlambelo lest he gets insane for the rest of his life.

‘Unfortunately, most of the boys fail to run faster than the king because he throws the fruit and runs first. When the boy picks it up and tries to follow, the king is, by that time, already at the entrance and the boys lack the courage to push him aside so that they can be first to enter. At the end these boys literally go insane and are given employment in the army to cover this problem.

‘I must reveal here that these boys to whom the fruit was thrown later usually commit murder, a direct cause of being thrown at with the luselwa. They include even those from the time of the late king Sobhuza II such as […]

‘During the process of kulahlelwa ngeluselwa, these young boys are given small shields with no sticks in them (imigobo). They are always chosen from the Inyatsi regiment kraal (about 20 boys in total) and ordered to dance at the entrance to the small kraal (Inhlambelo) for this session. Senior regiments dance far at a distance, in the middle of Sibaya so they don’t see a thing. The king then comes out of Inhlambelo dressed in some funny attire made up of grass and tree branches and inyoni (head gear) on his head and painted all over his body with black lotions (muti). He dances into a song that says “uyinkhosi yamakhosi” (you are king of kings) as he moves forward into the terrified boys and back carrying the fruit.

‘On that occasion Mswati seems like a mad man and he terrifies the young boys and the Indvuna will shout “do not be afraid of your king, he can’t harm you, he loves you all.” This is known to be a way in which the king cleans himself of all the evils of Incwala with the strong muti and all negative energy which he deposits onto one of the young boys who then loses his mind.’

To read Simelane’s full account of Incwala, click here.

See also

SWAZI KING AND BESTIALITY RITUAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/swazi-king-and-bestiality-ritual.html

KING’S BESTIALITY REPORT – NEW LINK

Readers have commented that they have not been able to access the full story of King Mswati III’s bestiality antics at the Incwala ceremony that I posted this morning (28 November 2011) because it is on a Facebook site.

I have put the full report online here which is available to anyone, with or without a Facebook account.
Swaziland Incwala Ceremony Startling Account of King's Behaviour