JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's annual Zulu Reed Dance ceremony was disrupted by hallucinating girls who swarmed the country's president, a Johannesburg newspaper reported on Monday. Teenage girls dancing in the annual cultural festival heard voices and rushed toward the area where President Jacob Zuma and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini were seated during the Saturday ceremony in KwaZulu-Natal province. The president's bodyguards escorted him away from the thousands of colorfully-clad dancers, The Star's front-page report said. Zuma's spokesman, who was at the ceremony, said the newspaper reports were exaggerated. “There was no danger to the president,” Bongani Majola said, adding that Zuma attended the whole ceremony without further incident. “There are some of you who came here with evil spirits to spoil this event,” the Zulu king told the crowd once order was restored, according to the report. Nomagugu Ngobese, president of a cultural group that trains the young women, heard reports that priests were summoned on Friday, after some dancers began wailing, apparently possessed. This happened again during the main ceremony on Saturday. Dancers began to hallucinate and scream, causing panic among the crowd of thousands of young women, who scattered in different directions, said Ngobese, who attended the ceremony. — AP
