LISTEN | Polygamist Musa Mseleku slams polyandry again: ‘It will never work’

‘Women are using this card of equality wrong in this regard because polygamy is not something to satisfy your physical needs. It’s not about that. It is about building families’

20 May 2021 - 07:00 By chrizelda kekana
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'Uthando Nes'thembu' star and popular polygamist has outlined his reasons for opposing polyandry.
'Uthando Nes'thembu' star and popular polygamist has outlined his reasons for opposing polyandry.
Image: Instagram/Musa Mseleku

Popular polygamist Musa Mseleku once again slammed the proposal for polyandry to be legally recognised as a form of marriage, saying not only is it an attack on the institution of marriage, but it will it never work because it is not a well thought idea.

Musa joined the TshisaLIVE podcast this week to elaborate on his opinion that making polyandry legal in SA goes against who we are as spiritual beings, attacks marriage and is in essence an insult to existing African traditions, cultures and practices such as polygamy. 

“I have said I view this [the proposal to legalise polyandry] as a direct attack on the institution of marriage as a whole. I stand by that.”

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“There’s a reason we are seed carriers as men. One of those reasons is to make sure we build families based on values, customs and traditions. We have to build a nation where we will have people who are going to grow out of being raised by proper, functional families. What I see here, what is going to happen, we are going to have a rise in fragmented families who are not going to be carrying any particular form of direction in terms of raising families,” he said.

Musa rose to popularity a few years ago when Mzansi Magic’s polygamy-themed reality show Uthando Nes’thembu took SA by storm. The show gave viewers a front row seat into how Musa, his four wives (MaCele, MaYeni, MaKhumalo and MaNgwabe) and 10 children navigate life individually and as a unit within the lifestyle.

Musa broke down his view in conversation with TshisaLIVE that polyandry was a misguided attempt by activists to equalise men and women based on a fundamental misunderstanding of polyandry and the spiritual makeup of African people. 

“Imagine one woman having — like in my case — four husbands. Each husband will want his own children who will bear the surname of that particular husband to grow his family. No matter how we try to say the children will take the wife’s surname, that can’t happen because spiritually and culturally that is impossible. The seed carrier of that child is the husband. I can’t lose my birthright as a seed carrier.

“Physically, I don’t think women in their condition can be in the position to that. Women are refusing to give birth even when they are married to one man. They say once child is OK or two. However, in this case, we will have multiple men competing to have children with this woman.”

Musa said he finds it hard to believe polyandry will work in reality, even if by “some miracle” the people for it manage to put it on paper. He said people were erroneously ignoring the spiritual implications of such an arrangement, and gave the example that in African culture a man should not have sex with a woman who is carrying another man’s child.

“Women are using this card of equality wrong in this regard because polygamy is not something to satisfy your physical needs. It’s not about that. It is about building families.”

Musa said he felt the proposal for polyandry came from deeply misunderstanding the purpose and value of polygamy.

The father of 10 said t women who had multiple partners should continue living that way if it pleased them, but legalising it would be an action from which SA would never be able to “come back”.

After receiving mostly backlash for making similar comments in an interview with eNCA , Musa took to his YouTube channel to state his case.

Musa said no matter the motivation behind the proposal, he believed “polyandry will never work and will bring more harm than good and many families are going to destroyed” because of it.

The Uthando Nes’thembu star said he is convinced polyandry would never work and doubted anybody would have a counterargument strong enough to sway him.

Watch the video below:


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