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Modern Party, Polygamist Tradition Clash in S. Africa
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"We don't generally put out statements about the marital comings or goings of leaders," party spokesman Steyn Speed said.
There appeared to be nothing the party could do to curb the latest gossip about its leader's personal life, which has been far more widely aired than most of his policy positions.
His ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, is South Africa's foreign minister and, according to many reports, Mbeki's preferred successor as party leader before Zuma's election last month. Another wife, Kate Zuma, killed herself in 2000. In a scathing suicide note, published by a South African newspaper, she wrote that her married life was "hell."
Among Zuma's three current wives is his first, Sizakele Zuma, news reports here say. His marriage to Ntuli would make four.
Zuma's sexual encounter with a family friend infected with HIV also became public fodder after she accused him of rape. Zuma defeated those charges in court, but statements from the trial -- including his assertions that her knee-length skirt made clear her sexual intentions and that his culture compelled him to satisfy her -- outraged women's rights groups.
But many of his supporters reached a different conclusion about that trial, saying the rape charges came only after the family of the woman, who was not publicly named, tried but failed to have Zuma take her as a wife.
Callers flooded Radio 702 on Friday when host Redi Direko raised the subject of Zuma's latest marriage. Men offered a wide range of opinions. But every woman but one -- who was elderly -- expressed frustration, Direko said.
"Even as we argue that it's culture, you have to ask: Who sets the terms for culture? It is males. It is patriarchy," she said.
Direko added that even as many South African women accept polygamous marriages, "a lot of them, when they're in their private moments, they'd rather be in a relationship with a man who's 100 percent there."
"This is what Jacob Zuma presents with his colorful life. It's messy. But it's real," Brown, the newspaper editor, said. "Real doesn't always mean progressive. It doesn't always mean forward-looking. But it's real."
