SWAZILAND: KING MSWATI III BELIEVES A CONSPIRACY WAS BEHIND A MOTHER'S COURT CHALLENGE TO GET HER DAUGHTER BACK AFTER SHE WAS SNATCHED BY PALACE AIDES TO BECOME THE MONARCH'S TENTH WIFE

Record ID: 640665

  • Title: SWAZILAND: KING MSWATI III BELIEVES A CONSPIRACY WAS BEHIND A MOTHER'S COURT CHALLENGE TO GET HER DAUGHTER BACK AFTER SHE WAS SNATCHED BY PALACE AIDES TO BECOME THE MONARCH'S TENTH WIFE
  • Date: 7th November 2002
  • Summary: (U3) MBABANE, SWAZILAND (FILE - OCTOBER 24, 2002) (REUTERS) MV ZENA'S MOTHER LINDIWE DLAMINI LEAVING THE HIGH COURT AND DECLINING TO SPEAK TO THE MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MBABANE, MANZINI AND LUDZIDZINI, SWAZILAND
  • Country: Swaziland
  • Topics: Legal System,Royalty
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWT15C1G48ZZ2YSFK18QVV3WB
  • Story Text: Swaziland's King Mswati believes a conspiracy was behind a mother's court challenge to get her daughter back after she was snatched by palace aides to become the monarch's 10th wife last month.
    The 34-year old monarch told Reuters and the South African Broadcasting Corporation in a joint interview on Tuesday (November 5, 2002) that the case had been taken over in an attempt to destroy Swaziland and its culture.
    Lindiwe Dlamini took two palace aides to court after they took her 18-year old daughter Zena Mahlangu from school at the start of October and delivered her to a royal guesthouse at the request of the king.
    The landmark case was seen not only as a test of the monarch's rights to choose his brides, but also of his absolute power over the small kingdom, where women are legal minors and opposition parties banned.
    Dlamini asked for her case to be postponed on Tuesday (November 5), effectively bring the challenge to an end, after speaking to her daughter for the first time in a month at the weekend.
    Her lawyer said Dlamini believed that her daughter had not wanted to marry the king but now seemed resigned to her fate.
    Dlamini had stressed her case was simply a move to get her daughter back, not a political manoeuvre.
    "She hasn't been in touch with her daughter for quite some time and from the look of things it looks like it's highly possible that she might not have her back again. She has every reason to be distraught," said Dlamini's lawyer Lucas Maziya.
    However, the case attracted widespread interest from pro-democracy and human rights groups in Swaziland and abroad, who said it highlighted the political problems in the land-locked country.
    Swaziland has been ruled by an absolute monarch since 1973, when political parties were banned.
    Pro-democracy and human rights activists want a constitution that allows political pluralism but a commission appointed to review the constitution said it found overwhelming support for the status quo.
    Human rights groups condemned the findings as flawed.
    A composed-looking Zena appeared in public with Mswati at the weekend, which observers said cemented her position as an official royal fiancee, or liphovela.
    British-educated Mswati is believed to have met Zena at a traditional reed dance ceremony in September. Hundreds of young Swazi maidens attend the ceremony each year and Mswati has chosen a number of his brides-to-be at the festivities.
    But critics of his methods said Mswati had flouted both tradition and the girls rights by arranging for her to be taken without her mother's prior knowledge or consent.
    Zena was about to sit exams when she became his bride.
    Mswati said that traditionally the king's emissaries would visit the family elders to inform them of the king's intentions. "Unfortunately in this case perhaps there were not so many of the relatives who were very close," he said.
    The king said he held no grudges against Dlamini but that she should have rather have lodged her grievances with the traditional structures. Traditionally, those with complaints against the king are expected to lodge them with the palace.
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