Saneie Masilela kissed his wife and said he loves her
despite the huge age gap that has stunned villagers who describe the marriage
as 'sickening'
Nine-year-old
Saneie Masilela has become the world's youngest groom for the second time after remarrying the 62-year-old woman he tied the knot with last year.
Dressed in a silvery tuxedo,
baby-faced Saneie clutched the hand of mother-of-five Helen Shabangu - her
children are aged between 28- and 38-years-old - as they repeated their vows a
year on in front of 100 guests.
The schoolboy says he did it to make
the marriage 'official' but other villagers in Ximhungwe in Mpumalanga, South
Africa describe it as "sickening".
The ceremony - where guests shared a
piece of cake - took place in front of Helen's long-term husband Alfred
Shabangu, 66, who was there last year as well.
He said: "My kids and I are
happy because we don't have a problem with her marrying the boy - and I don’t
care what other people say.”
Both families claim the wedding is
simply another 'ritual' after Saneie was told by his dead ancestors to wed last
year and his parents forked out £500 for the bride and another £1,000 for the
ceremony.
But the schoolboy - the youngest of
five children – wanted to follow South African tradition and insisted they have
the second ceremony this week to make their marriage official.
The
young groom said he still hoped he would have a proper wedding to a woman his
own age when he was older.
He added: “I told my mother that I
wanted to get married because I really did want to.
"I'm happy that I married Helen
– but I will go to school and study hard.
"When
I’m older I will marry a lady my own age. I chose Helen because I love her and, although we don’t live together all the time, we
meet at the dumping site where my mother works regularly."
Recycling worker Helen – who
donned the same dress as last year – said: “I’m very happy that the boy chose
me and my family support and understand that it is part of making ancestors
happy.
"One day Sanele would grow
normally and have family of his own and get married one day, all this ceremony
is for making ancestors happy. We are playing.”
Sanele’s 47-year-old mum, Patience
Masilela said: “Sanele was fine and he was happy about the ceremony last year
and it what he wanted – he was not shy.
“He was just happy to get married,
very excited and was not embarrassed about it. So much so he wanted to do it
again.
“After the wedding last year people
keep asking them question like will they live together, sleep together, have
babies but I keep telling them that after the wedding everything went back to
normal - nothing changed.
“Sanele moved to Venda not long after
the wedding because he wanted to learn a new language, but they are very close.
Our families are very close.
“It was nice celebrate with a wedding
once more, it was after all a calling from the ancestors.
“By doing this we made the ancestors
happy. If we hadn’t done what my son had asked then something bad would have
happened in the family."