Thousands of maidens have braved the chilly weather to attend this year’s Reed Dance at Nyokeni Royal Palace in Nongoma in northern KwaZulu Natal.
The Reed Dance festivities started on Friday when, non-schooling maidens presented their reeds to the amaZulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.
Maidens from Mpumalanga, Gauteng and neighbouring countries including Swaziland are also in attendance.
The cultural festival promotes respect for young women, calling on them to remain virgins until marriage.
Strict security measures have been put in place to ensure that the event is incident-free event. The sleeping areas have been fenced off with razor wire and security marshalls will provide strict crowd control measures throughout the ceremony.
A strong police presence is expected throughout the weekend to ensure the safety of the maidens, which has been questioned in the past. There have been instances where bystanders come to the Reed Dance, parking their vehicles not far from the event in an effort to entice the maidens. Prince Zulu says that will not be tolerated.
The amaZulu Royal House called on maiden minders – women who perform virginity testing – to make sure that the transport for maidens travelling to eNyokeni in Nongoma in northern KwaZulu-Natal, is in a fit and proper condition.
“Even those who just drive their cars filled with liquor, they will not be tolerated because eNyokeni is a ceremony, it’s not a picnic so people who are are not thinking that this is a holy place this is where the culture and the ceremony is conducted they think it’s a picnic, they coming with liquor they will be arrested.”
