Getting used to married life: Boy, 8, who wed 61-year-old woman on orders of dead ancestors, enjoys a meal with his new wife

• Sanele Masilela said that he feels like a proper husband now
• Married 61-year-old friend Helen Shabangu in an extravagant white wedding
• His dead grandfather asked him to wed from beyond the grave
• His family insists it was just a ritual to appease ancestral spirits

 

The schoolboy chose family friend and mother-of-five Helen and his family paid £500 for her to be his wife at a £1,000 ceremony in Tshwane, South Africa.
Sanele admitted that since the wedding, he has begun to feel like a married man.
He said:'The day was great and it was exactly what I had imagined it would be like.
'My friends thought it was really funny that I was getting married but I do now feel like a husband.'

Dressed in a bow tie and tiny silver suit, little Sanele, the youngest of five children, exchanged rings in front of 100 guests and even puckered up for a kiss.
But, despite appearances, it wasn't real, the marriage was just a ritual and not legally binding.
The couple do not live together but Helen is often invited to have dinner with him at the family's home.
Sanele has gone back to his life and continues to enjoy school and playing football with his friends but admits that the wedding was important to him.