Mswati picks 13th bride-to-be

2005-01-31 22:13

Mbabane - Swaziland's King Mswati III has picked a 17-year-old schoolgirl as his new fiancée and she will be introduced to the public as his 13th bride-to-be once she passes an HIV test, said royal sources on Monday.

Less than five months after picking 16-year-old Nothando Dube as his 12th bride-to-be, the 36-year-old Mswati has now chosen Colile Nosiphe Magagula, known as Titi, as his next fiancée.

She will be "unveiled" once she passes an HIV test and once she gets royal blessings from the Queen Mother Ntombi Thwala of Swaziland, where close to 40% of the population is living with HIV and Aids.

The "unveiling" means that she will be officially introduced to the public as his fiancée.

"There is a lady that is currently undergoing certain rituals that include an HIV test and if she passes that test she would be unveiled," a royal source said.

Swaziland has the world's highest per-capita rate of HIV infection at 38.8% in the kingdom of 1.1 million people, according to United Nations estimates.

Mswati has 11 official wives and two fiancées, including Magagula, and 24 children.

The king is apparently trying to fill vacancies left by two of his wives who left Swaziland in June after falling out of favour with the royal household.

Mswati, a polygamist who is know as "Ngweyama" or the lion, has ruled the mountainous kingdom wedged between South Africa and Mozambique since 1986, when he acceded to the throne at the age of 18.

His father, King Sobhuza II, led the country to independence from Britain in 1968, and died at the age of 82 in 1982 with at least 70 wives.

- AFP