I’M SHOCKED – PM, JOY’S MARRIAGE OFFICER

The Prime Minister and his wife Joy Dlamini at their wedding last year.

MBABANE – Marriage Officer Reverend Cariot Shongwe is depressed by the news that the Prime Minister (PM) Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, has filed for divorce of his wife of just over two years, Pastor Joy.

Reverend Shongwe, of the Motshane Church of the Nazarene, was beaming with a smile on March 15, 2014 when the two tied the knot but today it is a different story altogether – he is deeply astounded.
Shongwe was the one who declared the pm and Pastor Joy, husband and wife.

During the wedding, he asked the prime minister to kiss the bride after exchanging vows but he (prime minister) ‘disappointed’ the over 2 000 guests as he shied away and opted to blow a kiss. By then, the marriage officer was all smiles.
Shongwe was asked by this publication to share his feelings and views on the reports about prime minister and Joy’s collapsing marriage after the premier filed for divorce at the High Court on April 1, 2016.

“I did not expect this to happen. In fact as a marriage officer, you do not expect, the marrying couple to separate for whatsoever reason. If you are a marriage officer in charge of a wedding, you do not anticipate that marrying couple to divorce. There is shock and pain following the collapse of this marriage.  I am in pain.” he said.

Shongwe said marriage officers expect couples to heed the promises and vows they make on the wedding day hence he has learnt the news of the prime minister’s divorcing his wife, Pastor Joy, with deep shock.
“I was heartbroken to learn this. Kubekhona kwetfuka nekudzabuka.  Kungitfusile kakhulu (I was deeply shocked and heartbroken),” Shongwe said.

He went on to say that as human beings, people have to remember that in whatever they do, they end up making their own choices on how they want to live.
Shongwe noted that some are reluctant to take advice while others are willingly do so.  He reiterated that he was really shocked by the collapse of the marriage.
Despite the disappointment, he said one has to learn that it is one’s decision to heed to an advice or not.

Further probed on when he first heard that the pm and Joy were facing challenges in their marriage, he said: “News that they were facing challenges had reached my ears before it became public information through the media. However, I will not divulge any further information to you as I don’t have the permission to do so.”

Asked if the two went through premarital counselling, he answered to the affirmative but disclosed that it was not a rigorous one. Despite getting the pre-marital counselling, Dlamini and Pastor Joy’s marriage had hit the rocks.
He said they underwent about three premarital counselling exercises, more so because they were not new to marriage. “To them, it was just a reminder that they had to be tolerant to each other and how to overcome inevitable challenges,” said the marriage officer.

Shongwe was also asked if the prime minister’s refusal to kiss his bride on the day could have any significance to the challenges they were facing now as some people have suggested. he broke into laughter before saying it was not a sign of a bad omen.
The marriage officer said the kissing of the bride was insignificant in marriage. “It is just a marriage culture, which symbolises that a man has the full right to touch his wife after being declared husband and wife,” he said.
Furthermore, Shongwe also said that moment exposed the prime minister’s funny character.

“People didn’t know that the pm is a funny person but he showed them when he shied away and didn’t kiss his wife and he, thereafter, joked about it saying he ‘feared’ he would electrocute his wife since he was highly ‘electrified’.”   
The divorce proceedings ag-ainst Pastor Joy were filed last Friday, April 1, 2016.

The two were married through civil rites in a marriage that was solemnised on March 15, 2014 at the Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre’s main auditorium.
The grounds of divorce resulting in the prime minister initiating to end the marriage will not be disclosed for now pending the hearing and determination of the application by the courts.

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