A FAMILY scandal that threatens to reduce Friday’s World Cup opening ceremony to a farce has erupted in the polygamous household of South African President Jacob Zuma.
Just as Mr Zuma’s youngest and least popular wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli, was greeting dignitaries on a state visit to India, claims were published that she had become pregnant by her bodyguard, Phinda Thomo, at a time when she and Mr Zuma were estranged.
Thomo, who presumably knew what traditional penalties await a Zulu warrior who impregnates a chief’s wife, committed suicide when the affair was revealed, said a letter sent by “concerned family members” to Ilanga, the Durban Zulu newspaper.
Ms Ntuli was made to apologise to Mr Zuma in a “cleansing” ceremony in April at which she paid the traditional fine of one goat, which was promptly slaughtered and eaten.
Ms Ntuli is one of three wives and one fiancee expected to accompany Mr Zuma to the World Cup opening ceremony, where he will sit next to FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
The public interest in how heavily pregnant she will look and whether she will parade a new bodyguard is so great as to distract interest in the opening game (South Africa v Mexico) and create difficult protocol for the guest of honour, Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Given that at the opening of parliament this year Ms Ntuli was caught on camera shoving the other wives to get the senior wife’s position next to Mr Zuma, there is much speculation as to how she will behave. She is known to be anathema to the other wives.
The scandal could not come at a worse time for Mr Zuma, who already faces disarray in his governing African National Congress, whose leaders are involved in furious factional battles with writs and insults flying in all directions.
When it emerged that Mr Zuma had fathered a child out of wedlock with the daughter of Irvin Khoza, a football administrator, there were serious repercussions within the ANC, whose leaders say Mr Zuma has made himself a laughing stock.
There are suggestions that Mr Zuma’s tenure as President could be cut short by the ANC conference, due in 2012, in the same way that president Thabo Mbeki was thrown out by the conference in 2007. Mr Zuma broke off from his state visit to India to phone the Durban newspaper. He has ordered the police and the intelligence services to investigate, fearing hostile factions within the ANC may be behind the letter.
He also called an emergency meeting of all his wives, children and extended family members at the weekend. Mr Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse, a family spokesman, said the letter must have been the work of the President’s “political enemies masquerading as members of his family”.
This was laughed off by Ilanga editor Arthur Konigkramer, who told The Sunday Times that he had verified the story with several sources. “The problem is that so many Zuma family members cannot stand Ntuli that there is no stopping them talking about it,” Konigkramer said.
When the story of Mr Zuma’s latest love child surfaced, other ANC leaders warned him that such comic-opera dramas must cease because they were damaging to him and his party.
At first Mr Zuma assumed that criticism of his polygamous ways came mainly from whites. He was shaken to face a torrent of criticism from Africans, including other leaders.
The ANC high command is not known for its sense of humour and the sight of its leader being reduced to a public joke caused fury. But as Hermann Giliomee, the leading South African historian, put it: “The ANC used to be seen as a threat, but now it is just seen as a farce.”
Ms Ntuli has been a problem since Mr Zuma married her in 2008. At 35, she is 33 years younger than him and lives mainly in a five-bedroom mansion in Durban. Mr Zuma lives mainly in Pretoria and his homestead of Nkandla, 320km north of Durban.
When Ms Ntuli heard of Mr Zuma’s impending marriage to his latest wife, Thobeka, which took place in January, she threw a tantrum, swore at the other wives and fled to Durban, refusing to attend the wedding. On that occasion she broke Mr Zuma’s security gates, fought with the gatekeeper who had been ordered not to let her in, and assaulted police guards.
The rift between Ms Ntuli and Mr Zuma’s senior wife, Sizakele, is said to be unbridgeable. There has also been trouble at Ms Ntuli’s Durban mansion, where she has dismissed six housemaids in a year, one of whom is suing her for non-payment of wages.
Moreover, Ms Ntuli has Winnie Mandela’s habit of assuming that her celebrity allows her to run up large bills at luxury shops, which remain unpaid. Mr Zuma was previously married to two other wives, one of whom divorced him and one of whom committed suicide, leaving a note saying Mr Zuma had made her life “a living hell”. He has about 20 children – with more on the way – and several girlfriends.
Most South Africans regard his marital affairs as a joke, although feminists told a radio phone-in program that Ms Ntuli had struck a blow for women’s rights. “After all,” one said, “Zuma has children out of wedlock with other girls, so Ntuli has simply repaid him in his own coin. We should be proud of her.”
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