By Ruth Manuel-Logan on Feb 8th 2010 11:50AM
South African President Jacob Zuma, a polygamist leader, has publicly admitted to having an extramarital affair that produced a child last November.
Although the marathon adulterer has had countless affairs, President Zuma's lifestyle has been put under the microscope as of late by those who frown at his hearty appetite for women. The Zulu president has defended his polygamous lifestyle to a fare-thee-well and has blasted those critics who think he is behaving irresponsibly.
Political analysts and the South African media have banded together and are rallying against President Zuma's latest "responsible act": the birth of his 20th child with another woman while still married. In a country of 50 million, and where HIV/AIDS runs rampant-5.7 million victims, the highest in the world-many of Zuma's critics fear that his casual attitude about marriage might spill over in to the way he runs the country.
A Business Day newspaper editorial stated, "If the president is unable to respect social boundaries, such as those created through marriage, how can he be trusted to respect the boundaries erected in terms of the national constitution's checks and balances?" the paper asked. The Johannesburg Star newspaper echoed Business Day but added: "His rampant libido has made South Africa a laughingstock of the world."
President Zuma has been lauded for turning around AIDS policies after former President Thabo Mbeki and his outlandish policies were blamed for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths. Yet President Zuma's critics are still also quick to point out, that he might be undermining his own AIDS policy by behaving in such a cavalier manner as head of state. Many still remember the time when, on trial for rape - a charge of which he was eventually acquitted - President Zuma admitted to having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive. According to published reports, the 67-year-old president made mention of the fact that he showered to clean himself of the disease. Later, President Zuma "cleaned up" his statement by saying that he showered after sex, not after being exposed to HIV.
President Zuma currently has three wives and is engaged to another woman.
Brian Sokutu, a spokesman for President Zuma's African National Congress Party, told The Associated Press that the president's relationship with a fifth woman was not adulterous because he is a polygamist, who may have been intending to marry the woman. But Sokutu said he could not comment on whether a marriage was imminent. "There is something called courtship," Sokutu said. "What that means is that before you do officially get married there is the courting period. And during that period anything can happen."
In his public admission, where he names the mother of his child, 39-year-old Sonono Khoza, Zuma has confessed to paying the woman an 'inhlawulo,' which is a payment that is traditionally made by the man when an affair results in a child. President Zuma has made it very clear that the monies he has given to his child's mother is by no means an admission of any wrongdoing on his part. He has also referred to his latest drama as "intensely personal" and asked that the press be respectful of his privacy.
Meanwhile, Sokutu is keeping hope alive and does not think President Zuma's admission will end in a political fallout, "We're happy that he has come out and spoken out on this thing," Sokutu said. "He's not denying anything. We think it's a sign of honesty and hopefully this is going to give clarity to the South African public."
