Swazi royals under fire over 'kidnap' -CNN
Tuesday, October 29, 2002 Posted: 11:14 AM EST (1614 GMT)
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MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) -- Swaziland's chief justice criticised the royal family for continuing to frustrate a women's lawsuit seeking to prevent the king from marrying her daughter.
Lindiwe Dlamini had asked the court to force the royal family to release her daughter, Zena Zoraya Mahlangu, 18, from a royal guest house.
Mahlangu and two other women were picked up by King Mswati III's aides last month after the king decided they would be his 10th, 11th and 12th wives.
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"The continued protraction of the case is not helping anyone," Chief Justice Stanley Sapire said at a hearing on Tuesday.
The court had ordered two women to meet with Mahlangu to determine whether she was being held against her will, but they were refused entrance and told the royals were in mourning over the death of a member of the royal family.
In an interview with reporters on Monday, Mahlangu said she was ready to marry the king and nothing would make her change her mind.
"I am happy with everything and I ... am preparing to take my place in the royal household and be a good wife to my husband," she said.
Sapire said the two women appointed by the court must speak with Mahlangu by the next court hearing on Thursday to determine her true intentions. Without her side of the story, Sapire said, she should be released to her mother's care because women under the age of 21 are minors in Swaziland.
Sapire ignored the government's insistence that Mahlangu could not be interviewed until Sunday because of the mourning period and demanded they make Mahlangu available.
The case is unprecedented in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, where the king is above the law.
The lawsuit does not name the king, but says several members of the royal family defied tradition and the law in taking Mahlangu.
Mswati can marry as often as he pleases and his father, King Sobuza II, who died in 1982 after 60 years on the throne, had more than 100 wives.
Mahlangu and the two other women were taken to secret locations soon after participating in the reed dance, where tens of thousands of girls present themselves before the king so he can choose a new bride.
It is usually considered an honour to have one's child chosen as a royal bride.
The father of a second abducted woman said he would have sued as well but he did not have enough money. The third woman's father said he was happy that his daughter would now have financial security.
Human rights organizations, women's groups and opposition officials condemned the practice of snatching women as a violation of human rights.
Throughout the hearing, Dlamini was comforted by women's activists from the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse.
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