The eight-year-old boy who received international attention last year when he married a 61-year-old woman is back in the news as the couple remarried last week.
Saneie Masilela and Helen Shabangu, now nine and 62 years old, respectively, renewed their vows in front of other villagers last week in Kildare Village, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Last year, Saneie felt led by his deceased ancestors to take a bride. Shabangu obliged, and the couple was married in March 2013. Saneie's family paid an equivalent bride price of over $2,500 U.S. dollars to Shabangu, who is already married with five children. Her 66-year-old husband, Alfred, attended both wedding ceremonies.
Both families insisted that the weddings were purely ceremonial, not legally-binding, and that the couple was married to appease the dead.
"People keep asking will they live together, sleep together, have babies, but I keep telling them that after the wedding everything went back to normal – nothing changed," Saneie's mother, Patience, said.
"All this ceremony is for making ancestors happy. We are playing.
"If we hadn't done what my son had asked then something bad would have happened in the family."
Her son also recognizes that the marriage is only ceremonial, and looks forward to his first real marriage.
"I told my mother that I wanted to get married because I really did want to," he said.
"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."
Saneie wore a silver suit and bowtie similar to his wedding attire last year, but wore a purple shirt instead of black. Shabangu also appears to be in the same wedding dress, but wore a pearl necklace instead of the silver jewelry she wore last year.
Alfred said he will continue to support his wife, despite criticism from some of their neighbors.
"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," he stated.
