SWAZI BRIDE IS ZULU KING’S PRIDE

Undlunkulu Zola Mafu of Swaziland during her wedding to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini in Ulundi, South Africa yesterday. (Pic: City Press)

ULUNDI, KwaZulu Natala – More than 10 000 people from both Swaziland and South Africa, made it to Ulundi to witness the solemnisation of the marriage of King Goodwill Zwelithini and Undlunkulu Zola Mafu.

The 27-year-old Mafu was born in Swaziland. From as early as the morning, people were trickling into Ulundi’s football stadium ahead of the wedding.
Mafu is the Zulu king’s sixth wife.

The well-wishers filled the stadium and the adjacent Ulundi multipurpose centre, where the spillover of members of the public were accommodated, when the royal couple performed their traditional wedding rites during the afternoon.

A tent city had been set up around the stadium, with a massive police contingent already in place to control the crowd expected later in the day. Vendors were setting up in the streets around the stadium, expecting a busy day as people flocked into the area to catch a glimpse of the monarch (66) tying the knot with his bride (27).

Mafu came into the Zulu royal family in 2004, at the tender age of 17, with her pregnancy causing something of a stir, given the monarch’s role in calling on the youth to abstain from sex in a bid to stem the tide of HIV infections.

Last night Queen Mafu’s entourage arrived in Ulundi from Swaziland, passing the Ondini palace where she will live, en route to a temporary home.
Yesterday morning, she and her bridesmaids arrived at Ondini with their entourage for the leg of the wedding in which they danced and sang to their future in-laws, who will reciprocate.

The monarch and his bride then travelled separately to the stadium for the next stage of the wedding, which is open to the media, arriving separately with the entourage.
Both performed traditional dances and songs as part of the wedding proceedings before they solemnised the bond in a short ceremony during which both attested that lobola (bride price) had been paid in full and that they were both aware of the consequences of their actions.
The royal couple then performed a dance before moving off to Ondini, originally the seat of King Cetshwayo, for a private luncheon and an afternoon of dance and song.
Today will mark the final leg of the three-day wedding, in which prescribed gifts are exchanged ahead of a thanksgiving feast. (Additional reporting by City Press)

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