Shedding Mandela’s Mantle

Not all South Africans are preoccupied by such weighty debates, though. For the less serious-minded, the big issue now is which of Zuma's wives will become the next First Lady. Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist and unabashed polygamist, has been married five times and still has three spouses. (Foreign minister Dlamini-Zuma divorced him; another wife, former Mozambican flight attendant Kate Mantsho Zuma, committed suicide in 2000, reportedly citing marital misery as her reason.) Zuma is still married to his wife of five years, Mantuli Zuma, and recently paid lobolo (bride price) for a new young Durban wife, Thobeka Stacy Mabhija, with whom he has two children. But most likely to clinch First Lady status is Zuma's loyal first wife, Sizakele Khumalo, who has been with him since 1959 and who Zuma once described as "a wife, a friend, a sister and a mother to me." Zuma has brushed aside criticism of polygamy, arguing on television that unlike many politicians who hide mistresses and their children, "I love my wives and I'm proud of my children." But as Tutu points out, South Africa could probably do better.

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