President admits fathering child

Reuters

'DEGRADING': South African president Jacob Zuma is seeking 4 million rand for defamation.

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South Africa's polygamist president has confirmed that he fathered a daughter last year with a woman who is not one of his three wives or fiancee, and criticised those who said his actions undermined the country's campaign against Aids.

President Jacob Zuma's statement is his first comment on the issue since Johannesburg's Sunday Times reported this week that the baby girl born in October was Zuma's child.

Critics said the 67-year-old president's behaviour sends the wrong message in a country struggling against Aids. Experts say having multiple, concurrent partners heightens the risk of passing on HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

South Africa, a nation of about 50 million, has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country.

"It is mischievous to argue that I have changed or undermined government's stance on the HIV and Aids campaign," Zuma said in the statement.

"I will not compromise on the campaign. Rather we will intensify our efforts to promote prevention, treatment, research and the fight against the stigma, attached to the epidemic."

Zuma, who has 19 other children, has three wives and is engaged to a fourth woman.

Brian Sokutu, a spokesman for Zuma's African National Congress Party, said that the president's relationship with a fifth woman was not adulterous because Zuma is a polygamist who may have been intending to marry the woman. But Sokutu said he could not comment on whether a marriage was imminent.

"There is something called courtship," Sokutu said. "What that means is that before you do officially get married there is the courting period. And during that period anything can happen."

Zuma is popular in South Africa for his personal warmth and populist policies, and some applaud him for embracing what they see as traditional African values.

But since the Sunday Times report, he has faced criticism from political opponents as well as ordinary South Africans, some of whom have accused him of using tradition as an excuse for bad behaviour.

Sokutu, though, said he did not expect political fallout from Zuma's admission.

"We're happy that he has come out and spoken out on this thing," Sokutu said. "He's not denying anything. We think it's a sign of honesty and hopefully this is going to give clarity to the South African public."

The president called the matter "intensely personal" and appealed for his family's privacy.

Zuma said he had acknowledged paternity and paid an undisclosed amount of "inhlawulo" to the mother's family. Sokutu, the ANC spokesman, said "inhlawulo" is a payment traditionally made by the man when an affair results in a child, but he said its payment should not be seen as an admission of wrongdoing.

In his statement Zuma named the mother of the child as Sonono Khoza. Local media have identified her as the 39-year-old daughter of a prominent South African football official who has taken a leading role in preparing for this year's World Cup.

Zuma has been applauded for turning around Aids policies after President Thabo Mbeki's stance was blamed for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.

Mbeki questioned whether HIV caused Aids and his health minister distrusted drugs developed to keep Aids patients alive, instead promoting garlic and beet treatments.

In contrast, Zuma's government has set a target of getting 80 percent of those who need Aids drugs on them by 2011. Zuma has called for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive South Africans, and has urged people to get tested for HIV.

Zuma's turnaround is all the more remarkable because of his personal history.

In 2006, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend, Zuma testified he took a shower after extramarital sex to lower the risk of Aids. He was acquitted of rape.

- AP