A teenager has escaped from Swaziland to avoid becoming King Mswati III’s 14th wife.
The 19-year-old from the Swazi capital Mbabane was spotted by the king at the Reed Dance in 2006 when she was 17 years old.
At the Reed Dance tens of thousands of bare-breasted girls dance before the king. It is often rumoured (and often denied) that one of the main purposes of the Reed Dance is to give the king a chance to choose another wife.
King Mswati who turned 40 this year has a daughter older than his new intended wife.
According to South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper today (10 October 2008) Tandzile Ngwenya, is in South Africa after spurning the autocratic ruler’s ‘sexual advances’.
When tracked down by the newspaper Ngwenya said, ‘I am not very free, I should not be talking.’
She added that he did not want to discuss the matter further, saying she might get into trouble or people might ‘get to my parents’
She told the newspaper that her family was visited by a delegation from the Swazi Royal House.
‘They told my mother I had been chosen,’ she said. ‘I decided to make a dash for it and my mother agreed.’
She told the Sowetan that she had no intention of returning to her home country until she was certain that nothing would happen to her.
The Sowetan tried to get confirmation on Ngwenya’s story but was told by Swazi Chief Protocol Office that it could not respond to questions because it had no paper in its fax machine.
