38 Swazi virgins killed in an accident on their way to reed dance

Topless virgins during the reed dance

38 Swaziland virgins have been confirmed dead in a road accident while travelling to the annual reed dance, where the King of Swaziland, King Mswati III was to choose his new wife. “The girls are packed into these trucks, standing room only, like cattle. This was an accident that was waiting to happen for a long time,” said an eyewitness to the carnage that ensued on Friday night when a truck carrying 50 teenage girls struck a car that police escorts had directed to the roadside, eNCA reports.

King of Swaziland, King Mswati III   (C)Reuters

A second fully-loaded truck slammed into the first lorry from the rear on a decline from a highway bridge in Matsapha, halfway between Manzini and Mswati’s palace at Lozitha.
“According to information gathered, so serious was the accident that the tarmac was awash with blood, and critically injured imbali [maidens] were littered all over the place,” the Swazi Observer newspaper reported on Saturday.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a Pretoria-based pro-democracy group, said the death toll was likely to rise and claimed Swazi officials were discouraging media coverage. The human rights activists called for the cancellation of the reed dance.
“We hope that the families of the deceased girls will hold the royal family accountable for the deaths of their children,” the SSN said in a statement.
Government claims that 80,000 maidens will dance before King Mswati on Monday. Some of the girls may hope to be chosen as the polygamous king’s 15th wife. Mswati chose one of the teenagers as a bride last year. The event has become a tourism draw and will not be postponed or canceled, government sources say.
Thousands of  virgins usually perform for the royal family every year at the reed dance.