Friday 24 April 2009

Quick hit: Will the other wife get to be Second Lady?

From the Herald online this morning:
... As Jacob Zuma, the man preordained to be the country's next President, voted in his rural Zulu homeland yesterday, one of his two current wives stood to the side watching patiently as he was mobbed by cheering crowds and reporters.

But Nompumelelo Ntuli, 34, Zuma's newest and youngest wife, was soon attracting her own crowd of admirers.

...

Zuma, 67, a Zulu traditionalist and polygamist, has married at least four women over the years. Only two are still with him: Sizakele Khumalo, whom he married in 1973, and Ntuli, whom he wed last year.
Click through for the whole article.

I don't really like the whole First Lady phenomenon. Maybe if couples ran together, and were elected together, but they aren't.

And Zuma isn't exactly known for being pro-woman, having been acquitted of rape after using the unfortunately typical nasty defence.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't really like the whole First Lady phenomenon. Maybe if couples ran together, and were elected together, but they aren't.That's funny Julie, because this blog has contained many complimentary posts about Michelle Obama, including one complaining about how she isn't allowed more influence. And you seem to have posted all of them.

Julie said...

Links to evidence is generally appreciated brave Anon. Did you perhaps mean this guest post by katy on the media construction of Michelle Obama?Otherwise I've posted what I thought was a funny picture featuring the current First Lady (others disagreed), and that's about it...

Anonymous said...

I don't trust Zuma as President at all.

It seems grossly unfair that the woman who accused him of rape has had to flee the country (and in fact, the whole continent) in order to escape the death threats she received after the trial. She had AIDS and was working hard with programs that helped victims of AIDS and in AIDS prevention programs. The loss of her input in those areas will be a huge loss to South Africa.

Zuma (her alleged rapist) has said he thinks it is virtually impossible for a man to contract AIDS by having unprotected sex with a woman who has AIDS. He also said that not using a condom during the sex (rape?) he had with the alleged victim was okay because he 'showered afterwards'. President Zuma has more than a dozen children, to at least 6 different women (including 3 of his 4 wives; 2 of his 3 fiances; and 1 other woman).


The alleged rape victim and her father were prominent members of the same political party as Zuma, and she has said that she (and other women) have been raped by other comrads before. In the trial of Zuma the defence tried to allege that she had provoked the rape by dressing provocatively (in her knee-length skirt). She now lives in Holland where was granted asylum. I have huge respect for her in taking Zuma to court. He may be President now but at least the voters in South Africa were warned about him and can then make their own minds up.

Julie said...

Thanks most recent Anon for that info - I don't know much about Zuma but had an inkling there was some yucky stuff, so it's good to get a comment which expands on that.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
stargazer said...

anon at 7.18, your comment breached our comments policy. please familiarise yourself with it before commenting again.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
stargazer said...

anon, i looked at the post you linked to and the author said no such thing, so your quotation marks are a straight lie. she spoke of a specific person & did not generalise nor use any of the words you have "quoted". therefore i'm deleting your second comment as well. if you can show me where an author has said exactly what you have claimed, then i'll allow that comment to stand.

Anonymous said...

"Maybe it's just that the New Zealand left has developed some clarity on these issues, but if a powerful man is accused of rape and is acquitted that doesn't mean he's not a rapist. It means he is a rapist"

Emphasis mine.

It's the second to last paragraph of this post:

http://capitalismbad.blogspot.com/2007/12/holding-up-half-sky.html

I really don't see how saying that the verdict that Zuma was innocent was incorrect breaks the comments policy.

stargazer said...

well, your first comment did not indicate this was a quote, and you did not say that "the verdict that Zuma was innocent was incorrect". your second comment was inaccurate and only (mis)quoted part of a sentence out of context with an incorrect link. the third comment is fine & i thank you for taking the time to get it right.

Anonymous said...

So exactly which part of the comments policy was breached?