HOSEA YOUTH STOP TRUCK, BURN MAIDENS’ BAGS, BLOCK ROADS

NHLANGANO – At least 11 chiefdoms in the Shiselweni Region only had about five maidens each.

This is a far cry from the past years where between 30 to 50 maidens were picked up from their chiefdoms to attend the Umhlanga Reed Dance Ceremony. Some bucopho from the various constituencies said only 14 maidens were reportedly collected from all the seven chiefdoms making up Hosea Constituency. It was established from sources that some of the maidens had to be called through their parents to come to the pick-up points. Meanwhile, as the trucks were making their way to the different chiefdoms, one of them was stopped by Hosea youth and they forcefully boarded it while it was ferrying two maidens to the pick-up point. It was said that when the youth alighted from the truck, they took with them some of the maidens’ bags and burnt their items in a fire that was started in the middle of the road.

Blocked

The youth further blocked roads leading to Hosea and the trucks which were already inside the constituency centre had to use alternative routes out of the area with the maidens who showed up. In other constituencies such as Gege, there were only 12 maidens who showed up from the 11 chiefdoms making up the constituency, according to sources who were on the ground. Buses had to wait for over an hour for some of the maidens to show up.  The two buses left Gege for Ludzidzini Royal Residence via Mankayane with the 12 maidens aboard the truck at around 4pm yesterday. Also, it was estimated that around 30 maidens showed up at Nkwene chiefdom for the Reed Dance and were also taken by buses. It is worth noting that the maidens who were collected from the other parts of the region including Maseyisini, Hluti and Shiselweni 1, among other places, were taken to Mbangweni Army Barracks where they then boarded buses to Ludzidzini Royal Residence at around 3pm yesterday.

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