'Get a wife!' king tells his chiefs

18 September 2011 - 03:06 By BONGANI MTHETHWA
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King Ndamase Ndamase says a man should be married if he wants to be seen as a leader
King Ndamase Ndamase says a man should be married if he wants to be seen as a leader

Amaphondo King Ndamase Ndamase has ordered more than 50 eligible traditional leaders in his titanium-rich monarchy to find wives.

The 28-year-old monarch this week warned the chiefs, including his brothers, that their bachelor days were numbered.

"A traditional leader who does not have a wife does not have respect within their community. This is according to our culture," he said in an interview with the Sunday Times.

One of the country's richest monarchs, Ndamase rules over a kingdom of two million subjects, from Port St Johns to the Mthatha River in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.

"If you don't have a wife it's very difficult to be respected by the community," he said.

The king's order comes barely two weeks after he married his sweetheart, Tina Tolibadi, 27. Ndamase, a University of South Africa BCom student, was introduced to his wife three years ago by his royal council, made up of elderly relatives and advisers, after the council had embarked on a year-long search for a royal bride.

More than 3000 guests witnessed the couple's nuptials at the royal palace, the Nyandeni Great Place, at Libode near Mthatha two weeks ago.

Ndamase wore a gold suit designed by David Tlale, and his bride walked down the aisle in a white off-the-shoulder diamante dress designed by Port Elizabeth's Jason Kieck.

Guests at the wedding included Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's Queen Mantfombi and amaNdebele Queen Siphilila Dlamini-Mahlangu, Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula and Nelson Mandela's grandson, Chief Mandla Mandela.

Ndamase's personal assets include five farms, rich titanium reserves, a fleet of cars worth about R1.5-million, and a 10-room palace compound, maintained at taxpayers' expense. While the chiefs are not in the same league as their king, many of them have control over vast tracts of mineral-rich land and boast palatial personal compounds.

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