King’s man Ntfonjeni dies

Ntfonjeni pictured in his car.

LUVE – Ntfonjeni Dlamini, Overseer of the massive Imbali maiden’s regiment has died after a long battle with tuberculosis (TB).
He was also Mankayane King’s Liaison Officer (Ndabazabantu).

He died on Friday at about 8pm while admitted at Manzini Clinic.
He was aged 65.
Ntfo-njeni, who is also a fo-rmer miner, is survived by 34 children with the youngest aged eight and three wives. His family said his death was untimely and unexpected.

Reporters visited the Dlamini family yesterday.
The family was found mourning and grieving.
The elders asked not to comment because the family was yet to report Ntfonjeni’s passing to the royal family.

“We can only comment about this issue once we have reported it to the royal family,” said Khanyakwezwe, one of Ntfonjeni’s eldest sons.
In a separate interview, Sitata-nyiswa, another of Ntfonjeni’s children, said his father’s death was a huge blow to the family.
He said the family would never be the same because the deceased always worked hard to keep it together.

 “We are shocked by his death. It came out of the blue. It was untimely because we all believed he had recovered from his long illness, which started about two years ago,” he said.
He also said his father had been a sickly man but towards the end of last year he showed signs of full recovery but fell back to sickness again early this year.

Sitatanyiswa said his father had tuberculosis (TB) and other pulmonary related diseases, which the family believes, caused his death.
It was not immediately clear how he could have died of TB, as it is a curable disease.
Only those who default or do not take medication are likely to die from it.

“When we took him to hospital on Thursday morning, he was very sick but later showed signs of stabili-sation. I was shocked when I leant that he died Friday evening,” he said.
The family is in great pain over the loss. “He gave everyone of us a cha-nce to get an education. Despite that there were many of us, he made sure he paid all our school fees. Even now, some of our siblings are still at school.

He was paying for them,” said Thabo, another of his sons.
Khanyakweze and Sitatanyiswa are soldiers.

Thabo said his father loved his family. “He was a farmer and every year, he ensured that the whole family had a bumper harvest which was shared among the households,” he said.
“I will forever miss him for the good advice he gave to all of us on how to be good citizens who respected everyone despite their age and standing in society.”

royalty

Apart from being the maiden’s leader, Ntfonjeni served as Ndabaza-bantu for Mankayane, a post he assumed in 2009 and held until his death. He was also National Overseer of the Umcwasho chastity rite.
His family described him as a disciplinarian.

“He would beat us each time we strayed. He never hesitated to discipline us, no matter our age,” said Lusaseni, his other son.
Meanwhile, the acting Ludzidzini Governor said Ntfonjeni’s family was yet to report his death to the royal family. He said he heard about his death but he had no confirmed information yet.
He asked not to comment further on the subject until the Dlamini family officially reported it to his office. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Umcwasho fines and beating up Sikhanyiso

MBABANE –  Ntfonjeni Dlamini’s reign as overseer of the Imbali maidens’ regiment was characterised by controversy.
He was known for being a strict disciplinarian but the country’ authorities retained him.

His reputation attracted a lot of criticism both locally and internationally when he hit Princess Sikhanyiso, the leader of Imbali maidens after he stumbled across her at a party, hosted by the then 17-year-old that featured loud music during the Reed Dance activities in 2005. This was at Mphisi Farm, where senior maidens normally put up for the night after cutting the reed.

Unimpressed with what he saw, Ntfonjeni whipped the princess with a stick as she fled.
She defended herself by saying the party was a private event to celebrate the end of the chastity (Umcwasho) which had begun in 2001 after a pronouncement by His Majesty the King.

His act was widely criticised and condemned by both local and international children’s rights organisa-tions.
Dr Allen Brody, then Country Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was among those who condemned it and said it was child abuse. However, his act was lauded by traditionalists such as Prince Jahamnyama who said Princess Sikhanyiso received what she had bargained for by turning such an important event (the Reed Dance) into a social gathering.

As he lived up to his reputation of being a disciplinarian in the ensuing years, on September 3, 2007 he assaulted a group of maidens with a stick resulting in two of them being rushed to the Lobamba Clinic.

The girls were Nokulunga Mamba and Calisile Tfwala of Mzimnene.
They could not dance before Their Majesties as they were seriously injured after the beating.
Mamba and Tfwala were not the only maidens who were beaten as four others were also involved but were lucky not to sustain serious injuries.
While in the position as National Overseer of the Umcwasho chastity rite, during the period between 2001 and 2005, he collected, on behalf of His Majesty the King, over 50 cattle as part of his crusade to collect all outstanding Umcwasho fines.

These cattle were collected from families of girls who fell pregnant during the period of this chastity rite. A beast would also be paid by the family of the man who impregnated the maiden.

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