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The 21-year-old daughter of South Africa’s former president is marrying the 56-year-old king of neighbouring Eswatini for love not politics, the absolute monarchy has insisted.
Nomcebo Zuma, daughter of ex-leader Jacob Zuma, will become the 16th wife of Africa’s last absolute monarch, who has ruled the landlocked country formerly known as Swaziland since 1986.
The engagement of King Mswati III to Ms Zuma was made official earlier this week at the end of the traditional eight-day reed dance ceremony where hundreds of women and girls danced for the king.
The engagement has sparked discourse around the possible political benefits to Mr Zuma, who launched a new political party on the eve of this year’s general election and took nearly 15 per cent of the vote.
But Alpheous Nxumalo, an Eswatini spokesman, dismissed the suggestion that the marriage would be a political alliance.
He said: “Love has no eyes to see or count age. Love happens between two people. It can happen between a person who is 100 years old and a person who is above the average of what is permitted constitutionally.”
Mr Zuma, 82, was president from 2009 to 2018 when he was forced to resign as his African National Congress (ANC) government was engulfed in a corruption scandal.
He was accused of presiding over a process of state capture, where allies took control of ministries and state enterprises so they could loot budgets and assets.
Mr Zuma strongly denied wrongdoing, but he was ousted from power and then jailed for not testifying at a national inquiry.
He has in recent years, however, undergone a renaissance, using strong grassroots support in his Zulu homeland to build a new party and turn on his former ANC comrades.
Mr Zuma and the king are already relatives through marriage.
Critics of the king have accused him of leading an opulent lifestyle while most of his kingdom lives in poverty.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk
