Second ESwatini Queen Dies in less than a year - INKHOSIKATI Nothando LaDUBE (1988 - 2019)
'Queen' LaDube, the 12th wife of Swazi King Mswati III, has died earlier this week at the age of 31. The death was first reported last Thursday (March 7, 2019) and confirmed Saturday (March 9) to the kingdom's Broadcasting service by a Governor. Nothando Dube, who mothered 3 of the King's ~23 children, but didn't saw him for the last 8 years, reportedly passed away in a South African hospital, where she had been treated for a form of skin cancer. She is the second of the Africa's last abdolute monarch's 14 wives to die within a year. The millionaire King provides each of his wives a lavish palace life, isolated from the rest of the world under his close supervision, in a country with high-ranked poverty & increased percentage of HIV/AIDS diseases.
NOTHANDO DUDE was reported to be born in February 1988 (other sources say in 1987). Her father is from Barberton, South Africa. Nothando studied to a local high school when she met her future husband (20 years her senior), at a birthday party organised for one of his children. She soon participated the Miss Teen Swaziland pageant, when she went to be a finalist, and later (in August 2004), was chosen as the King's future wife at the age of 16, during the Reed Dance ceremony.
The Reed dance (or Umlahanga) is an annual event observed by Swazi and Zulu people. It occurs in August each year and (in Swaziland) takes place at Ludzidzini Royal village, with an 8-day-duration. Hundreds of thousands of virgin young women & teen girls are gathered from the entire country, and perform traditional dances bare-breasted in front of the King & Queen Mother (who shares power with her son). At the end, the King has the right to choose his next wife among these virgins - a tradition, continuing to this day.
Eventually Mswati (Ngwenyama/Ingwenyama, or "lion King" of Swaziland since 1986 & the world's youngest monarch until 2006) married Nothando on June 11, 2005, made her his 12th Royal Consort, styled Inkhosikati laDube, and granted her a luxurious palace, with staf personel and "a fleet of cars". She gave birth to three of his children: Princess MakhosothandoDlamini (b. 2005), Prince BetiveDlamini (b. 2007), & Princess MahlemalangeniDlamini (b. 2009). Although they were recognised as members of the ruling House of Dlamini, Dube would later report that King Mswati didn't knew even their dates of birth, and she was raising them completely by herself.
In 2010 Queen laDube became the subject of an adultery case. She was caught to have an extramarital affair with Swaziland's justice minister (and King Mswati's childhood friend,) Ndumiso Mamba. It was during a King's official visit abroad, when her guards mentioned a person in officer's uniform leaving the palace at nights and departing by a waiting car to an unknown destination. Once guards followed the car, they reached a hotel 10km from the palace, and found out the Queen (dressed up as officer) in a private hotel room, and the justice minister, trying to escape into the lower mattress of the bed! Mamba was forced to resign from his office and temporary detained, though Dube was placed under house arrest, with her husband denying to see her again, and her family never allowed to contact her personally. Ever since then her noticed public appearances ceased.
In 2011 the Queen contacted with british press and complained of isolation. She said that she was feeling a prisoner in her own palace; every contact with the royal family was cut-off, her own guards beheaved abusively & literally assaulted her when she tried to leave, and even in urgent situations (eg: the need of a doctor), she had to wait those she needed to enter the palace. These reports led to pressure by some pro-democracy movements within the kingdom (& human rights' organisations from abroad). However, a senior official of the kingdom, denied laDube's reports of assault.
In November 2011, it was sourced that the (23-year-old) Ikhosikate was forced to leave (her) Ludzidzini royal residence, after a tension with a security guard. Queen Nothando had to take her younger, two-year-old daughter to a doctor (after she injured herself while playing), while the guard member physically prevented her to exit the palace. She thus pepper-sprayed his eyes, and managed to get out. This was reported to her mother-in-law ('Queen Mother' Ntfombi Tfwala, officially titled Ndlovukati, or: The Great She-Elephant), who decided that act as disrespectful & ordered laDuba to "pack and leave". A month later reports wanted her to be 'dumped at her maternal grandmother's home', with no food & (even) bedding, separated from her three young children (still recognised as the King's offsprings). In 2012 information emerged that she had escaped to South Africa.
Inkhosikati laDube's death was announced through ESwatini' Broadcasting & information service by Governor Lusendvo Fakudze. The cause of her death (skin cancer) was confirmed by the King's elder daughter (Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini) along with further tributes. She is thought to have died in the early hours of Thursday, March 7, at a South African hospital (that was not revealed). According to the official announcement, Queen laDube's funeral took place on Sunday, 10 March 2019, after a vigil the previous night at Ludzidzini Royal residence. She was laid to rest privately.
Inkhosikati Senteni laMasango (1981-2018)
Nothando laDube is the second of King Mswati III's wives to die. The first was Inkhosikati Senteni laMasango (1981-2018), who commited suicide in April last year. laMasango, who struggled with mental health issues and attended her sister's funeral without the King's consent, took her life after a suspected amytriptyline overdose, being abandored by her husband for years. However, the King still celebrated his 50th birthday in pomp later that month, renaming the kingdom from Swaziland to Eswatini. Both Queens died tragically in their 30s, having suffered at the palace. Swaziland/Eswatini is an independent country since 1968. But it lacks of constitution since 1973, with the government - (a) King's puppet, and politics & media dominated by the polygamic monarch, whose lavish lifestyle and repressions have been 'tightly' criticized by international independent organisations. The misstreatment within the palace walls have also been a part of those repressions. Two of Mswati's 14 wives have already successfully escaped (& 'deleted' from the royal family), other two now have died, while His Majesty is already (since 2017) planning to marry his 15th wife (to be). But whether he choses to follow his father's footsteps (who had more than 200 wives in his 82-year-reign), or tries to come in terms with the reality & context of his time (trying to limit his unhappy marriages), may not be dependent even on him.
INKHOSIKATI NOTHANDO laDUBE (6/02/1988 - 7/03/2019), Queen-Consort of Eswatini/Swaziland (2005 - 2019), as the 12th wife of King Mswati III. May She Rest in Peace!
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