Young women, known locally in the KwaZulu-Natal province as "maidens", participate in a traditional "reed dance", an age-old annual ceremony in celebration of sexual purity and promotion of sexual ...

The Umhlanga Reed Dance has in the past involved bare-breasted young Swazi women dancing and singing in beaded mini-skirts to catch the eye of King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch.

The eThekwini municipality is spending almost R1-million to transport more than 1200 maidens from Durban to this year’s Reed Dance. The city will provide about 20 buses at R44,000 each to take the ...