Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal - King Goodwill Zwelithini has made an impassioned plea to the international community to invest in growing the Zulu Reed Dance and promote it globally as a cultural event.
Speaking at the uMkhosi woMhlanga (Reed Dance) at his Enyokeni Royal Palace in Nongoma at the weekend, he said the ceremony could be part of the government’s rural development plan.
Tourists from Asia, Europe and America attended the three-day ceremony. Zwelithini asked that they “reflect and share” what they had seen when they went home.
“You should tell investors that we plead with them to invest so we can deal with problems of ignorance and disease and alleviate poverty,” he said.
He dwelt on how the Reed Dance was part of the fight against HIV and Aids.
“It is against this backdrop that I invite investors to work with us in developing the uMkhosi woMhlanga brand.
Since reviving the ceremony more than three decades ago, it had become a major tourism attraction.
“uMkhosi woMhlanga not only reflects our rich history and tourism potential, it also creates jobs for impoverished locals,” he said.
The ceremony was a proven solution to HIV and Aids, although he knew little about the disease when he revived the event.
He told the maidens that, despite efforts to fight the disease, the war was far from over.
“We will only defeat it when you refuse to have irresponsible sex,” he said.
Meanwhile, an assurance from the royal family that maidens would be provided with private facilities to bath did not materialise and they had to bath in public.
The women said they had arrived at the palace on Thursday to find there were no cubicles. Some washed at a nearby stream as they had done in previous years.
Nomagugu Ngobese, who chairs the Nomkhubulwane Culture and Youth Development Organisation, and who had led maidens from Pietermaritzburg to the ceremony, was not impressed.
“I read in the newspapers that the girls would bath in privacy, but there was no privacy. We were promised tents for the girls to sleep in, but when we arrived on Thursday a tent allocated for the uMgungundlovu girls had not been properly erected and had no light at night. We ended up sleeping in the buses,” she said.
- Meanwhile a bus driver transporting maidens from the reed dance was arrested for drunk driving yesterday.
Transport Department spokesman Kwanele Ncalane said the driver was caught by traffic police, who confirmed that he was over the legal alcohol limit and lacked a professional driving permit.
More than 94 buses were stopped as part of the operation and the faulty ones were taken off the road.
Last year, nine maidens died when their bus crashed after the reed dance.
The Mercury