King Mswati III is down another wife, leaving him only 12 to make do with. She is the second to have left in recent months, and cited “physical and emotional abuse” as the reason for her exit.

On Saturday, Angel “LaGija” Dlamini, the monarch’s sixth wife, left her palace pretending to depart to visit her parental home in Hhohho. She never returned. Dlamini is 44 and claims to have endured abuse for many years before finally calling it quits this weekend. In a statement, reposted on The Daily Mail, the South African based Swaziland Solidarity Network said,

In what will not come as a shock, King Mswati’s sixth wife, Angela ‘Lagija’ Dlamini, has left the Swazi royal harem for good.

She left the royal household last night, citing many years of emotional and physical abuse by her husband as the reason for her departure.

A royal guard revealed that Angela had been unhappy for a long time and had actually thought of leaving her husband for many years.

She finally packed her bags for good last night, initially pretending to be visiting her parental home in Hhohho.

From there she disappeared and is believed to be with relatives.

A handful of Mswati’s wives

She is the second of 13 wives to have left the king in less than a year, and has a nine-year old child with him. Last November it emerged that Mswati expelled his 12th wife, Nothando Dube, after it emerged that she was allegedly intimately involved with a member of the government. She later claimed that she had been held hostage since August 2010, when she was caught in bed with Ndumiso Mamba, Swaziland’s then justice minister. He was fired over the scandal.

Delisa Magwaza was the first of his wives to have fled, and was closely followed by Putsoana Hwala, who left behind three children.

[Source: The Daily Mail, The Indian Express]