Zuma family ‘content’ with polygamy: Son
2010-02-05 16:00
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s children are “content” to share their father
with “20 or more” siblings, his son Duduzane said today.
“We as a family are content with the polygamous nature of our
household,” the young Zuma said in a statement. “We are content to have twenty
siblings or more.”
Duduzane said his president father had his children’s blessings to
add to the brood if he so wished. “It is my father’s right within the context of
his culture to have as many children as he wishes.”
He said as a “citizen” his father had a right to practice his
culture. “As a citizen of South Africa, my father has the same right to privacy
and to practice his culture as any other citizen.”
The young Zuma added that many of his father’s children were adults
who could help raise the younger ones. “Many of us are adults who are quite
capable of taking care of ourselves and our minor brothers and sisters.”
Duduzane said his father’s care for children extended beyond his
biological brood. “He is a father who has never denied any of his children and
cares for the welfare of his family and for that of millions of other children
in South Africa.”
The family was proud of their father.
“We love our father and are very proud of the loving, fair, just,
principled and dignified manner in which he heads up our family,” he said.
This week President Zuma, who has three wives and a fiancee,
confirmed he had a relationship with Sonono Khoza, daughter of 2010 World Cup
local organising committee chairperson Irvin Khoza, and they had a daughter
together last year.
“I said during World Aids Day that we must all take personal
responsibility for our actions. I have done so,” a statement issued yesterday on
behalf of Zuma read.
“I have done the necessary cultural imperatives in a situation of
this nature, for example the formal acknowledgement of paternity and
responsibility, including the payment of inhlawulo to the family.”
The gist of the criticism levelled at Zuma was that his actions
were not in line with the government’s HIV/Aids policies – a suggestion he
disagreed with.
Yesterday, the president’s spokesperson Zizi Kodwa announced that
Zuma had cancelled his public engagements for two days so he could rest
following a “hectic schedule”.
Speaking to Sapa, Kodwa said: “The president is fine. It’s just his
hectic schedule.”
Yesterday, the Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille dismissed
Zuma’s attempts to place his love child in the context of Zulu culture, saying
it was no excuse for infidelity.
“No culture, polygamous or otherwise, justifies cheating on your
wives,” Zille wrote in her weekly newsletter SA Today.
- SAPA