A row has erupted in South Africa after it emerged taxpayers are spending more than 15.5 million rand (US$2.1 million) a year to support South African President Jacob Zuma’s three wives and some of his 20 children.
The figure, almost double the presidential spousal budget a year ago, was condemned as “exorbitant” by the opposition leader, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who said the size of Zuma’s family “makes corruption almost inevitable.”
This prompted a sharp riposte from the governing African National Congress (ANC), which accused Zille, who is white, of “cultural intolerance.” Zuma is a member of the Zulu tribe, in which polygamy is a traditional practice.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question on Tuesday, Collins Chabane, a minister charged with monitoring government performance, said the state had a 15.5 million rand budget for Zuma’s family this year. This compares with the spousal support office budget of 4.5 million rand in 2005-2006 and 8 million rand in 2008-2009.
The spousal office paid for personal support staff, such as secretaries and researchers, as well as domestic and international air travel and accommodation, Chabane said.
Cell phones for spouses and their secretaries, laptops and printers and a special daily allowance for “incidental” expenses were also covered.
“The state provides all reasonable administrative, logistical and other support to the spouses to enable them to meet these responsibilities in a manner that permits them actively to pursue their own careers and interests if they so desire,” he said.
Thobeka Zuma was engaged in community work related to health, Sizakele Zuma was dealing with agriculture and food security, while Nompumelelo Zuma was working with orphans and vulnerable children, he added.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS