ZUMA APOLOGISES FOR LOVE CHILD

Jacob Zuma with his three wives Sizakele Khumalo (right) Nompumelo Ntuli (left) and Thobeka Mabhija. The South African president is said to have fathered a child with Sonono Khoza, the daughter of soccer tycoon and Soccer World Cup local organising committee chairperson Irvin Khoza.

Johannesburg: South African President Jacob Zuma apologised yesterday for fathering an illegitimate child, in the face of national outcry.
Critics say Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist who practises polygamy and currently has three wives and 20 children including the baby he fathered with another woman, has set a bad example in a country with one of the world's highest rates of HIV/Aids.

• "I have over the past week taken time to consider and reflect on the issues relating to a relationship I had outside of wedlock," Zuma said in a statement yesterday, acknowledging it "has been a subject of much public discussion and debate".
• "It has put a lot of pressure on my family and my organisation, the African National Congress. I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC, the Alliance and South Africans in general," he said, reaffirming his commitment to "the importance of the family as an institution".
• On Tuesday Zuma, who married for the fifth time last month, taking Tobeka Madiba as his third current wife, confirmed reports he had fathered a child with Sonono Khoza, daughter of Irvin Khoza who heads the local organising committee for the 2010 Fifa World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in June.
• Khoza gave birth to a girl in October last year. The presidency has said previously that Zuma has 19 children. Zuma said on Tuesday he had formally acknowledged paternity and made a traditional payment of inhlawulo (damages) to Khoza's family.
• Saturday, the Star Newspaper quoted unnamed senior party officials as saying Zuma had plunged his ANC party into crisis by breaking a pledge he made after being elected party leader in 2007 "not to embarrass the ANC with other sexual revelations".
• Multiple marriages are allowed in South Africa and form part of Zulu culture, but have drawn criticism from HIV/Aids activists. At least 5.7 million South Africans are infected and an estimated 1,000 people die from the disease each day.
• Zuma, who has repeatedly defended polygamy, including at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, has said he will not deviate from the HIV/Aids campaign.
• Confirmation that Zuma has fathered a child with yet another woman has prompted jokes in South Africa's media but has also hit a nerve in a country hardest hit by the virus that causes Aids.
• "All these Aids campaigns tell us to have one partner but our president has five," said Phemelo Mmitsinyane, an 18-year-old University of Johannesburg student.
• "Zuma believes he is above the law and social norms. He believes that by virtue of his position he can get away with anything," Helen Zille, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, wrote in a weekly newsletter on Thursday.
• Since the disclosure, Zuma has wound up being lampooned in political cartoons. On Friday, The Star ran a list of Zuma jokes on the front page. One of the jokes said ruling party officials have stopped Zuma from kissing babies "because they might call him ‘Daddy'."
• For his part, the 67-year-old Zuma said it is ‘mischievous' to argue he has undermined the battle against Aids and admonished the South African media for identifying his daughter. The birth of Zuma's 20th child was first reported in Johannesburg's Sunday Times newspaper, which cited unnamed friends of the mother's family.

Source: Gulfnews