Spokesperson Lucky Lukhele says according to their informantion the dance is intended to go ahead as planned. 

The girls died in an accident when a large group of women were being transported on the back of a flatbed truck to the festival, and one truck crashed into the back of a car on the Mbabane-Manzini highway killing 38 girls on the scene, while 27 others later died in hospital. About 100 girls were injured, some as young as six, and some left without limbs after the accident.

In other reports Lukhele is quoted as saying, even if Swazi King Mswati were to pick one wife today or tomorrow he must cancel the event or postpone it to next year.

He adds the ceremony's history is fraught with lies and cover-ups, and he has now called for two days of mourning.

Yearly thousands of young women descend to the royal residence from all over the nation, but in a country where relatively few families own vehicles and where infrastructure is poor, many are squeezed onto open trucks. 

Thandi Xaba/OFM News