It was anything but happily ever after' for 38 women who were killed while travelling to the Swazi Reed Dance Festival held annually for unmarried and child-free women.
According to Time, an eight-day reed dance will take place in the King's royal residence where young virgin women will be singing and dancing bare-breasted as they bring reeds to reinforce the royal household's windbreakers.
During this ceremony, the King will supposedly pick a woman to become one of his wives.
Swaziland practices polygamy and the King is no exception. He reportedly has a dozen wives.
The young women and girls, who were pronounced dead, were said to be riding at the back of an open truck that was hit by another vehicle as it travelled along a motorway between the Swazi cities of Mbabane and Manzini on Friday afternoon, according to The Daily Mail.
Survivor Siphelele Sigudla, 18, told The Daily Mail: 'We were about 50 on board the first truck that smashed into the Toyota van.'
"According to inside sources, a total of 38 young girls have been pronounced dead, with more than twenty others seriously injured," the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SNN) said in a statement cited by Sputnik News.
The SSN is a human rights group currently banned in the African country.
Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati III addressed the grave news in a speech at the opening of an international trade fair in Swaziland's economic center Manzini.
"We all have heard about the dark cloud that has befallen the 'imbali,'" King Mswati III said accoding to The Chicago Tribune.
The king used the Swati language word for flower to refer to the groups of women dancers.
Furthermore, the king promised that the affected families would be compensated and added that an investigation into the accident was underway.
SNN says that the Swaziland Police discouraged reporting on the accident.
A Swazi journalist who wishes to remain anonymous told SNN that press photographers were prevented from taking pictures at the scene.
"We hope that the families of the deceased girls will hold the royal family accountable for the deaths of their children," the group said in a statement cited by The Daily Mail.
"The least that the royal family can do at this moment is to cancel this year's reed dance," they added.
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