Johannesburg (Earth Times) - South African President Jacob Zuma apologized on Saturday for fathering a child out of wedlock, in an affair that has seen the polygamist leader condemned for a lack of leadership and self-restraint. A week ago, the country's Sunday Times newspaper revealed that Zuma, who already has three wives and a fiancee, had fathered a child last year with another woman.
Sonono Khoza, the 39-year-old daughter of South African football boss, Irvin Khoza, gave birth to a baby girl in October, three months before Zuma married his third concurrent wife, Thobeka Mabida.
The infant is Zuma's 20th confirmed child from four out of five total marriages - he is divorced from one wife and another committed suicide in 2000 - and his fiancee.
After initially insisting the matter was a private one and shirking public demands for an apology, Zuma, 67, on Saturday finally admitted wrongdoing.
"I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC (ruling African National Congress), the (governing tripartite) Alliance and South Africans in general," he said in a statement issued by the presidency.
Zuma said he could "acknowledge and understand the reaction of many South Africans," who have accused him of making South Africa the butt of jokes because of his sexual philandering and of undermining the fight against HIV/AIDS by evidently failing to practice safe sex.
In a measure of the dismay felt by many women particularly, the niece of Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Kananelo Sexwale, had accused Zuma in comments on Facebook social networking site of the "stereotypical bad behavior of a randy black womanizer."
She was later forced to apologize for "disrespect to an elder."
South Africa has the world's highest burden of the disease, which is mainly transmitted through unprotected sex. An estimated 5.7 million people in the country, or one in nine, is HIV-positive.
As recently as World Aids Day on December 1, Zuma had urged South Africans to protect themselves against HIV infection - remarks that had been understood as promoting the use of condoms.
While still insisting, as he did in earlier statement on Wednesday, that the matter was "private" and that he had fulfilled his responsibilities towards the mother and child by paying customary damages to the Khoza family in keeping with the Zulu tradition - Zuma said he recognized his responsibility "to uphold and promote" the values of "personal responsibility, respect and dignity."
The ANC, which has stood by him publicly throughout the week-long furore, welcomed Zuma's apology as a sign of his "integrity and honesty" and appealed to all South Africans to "to put this matter to rest."
Sonono Khoza, the 39-year-old daughter of South African football boss, Irvin Khoza, gave birth to a baby girl in October, three months before Zuma married his third concurrent wife, Thobeka Mabida.
The infant is Zuma's 20th confirmed child from four out of five total marriages - he is divorced from one wife and another committed suicide in 2000 - and his fiancee.
After initially insisting the matter was a private one and shirking public demands for an apology, Zuma, 67, on Saturday finally admitted wrongdoing.
"I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC (ruling African National Congress), the (governing tripartite) Alliance and South Africans in general," he said in a statement issued by the presidency.
Zuma said he could "acknowledge and understand the reaction of many South Africans," who have accused him of making South Africa the butt of jokes because of his sexual philandering and of undermining the fight against HIV/AIDS by evidently failing to practice safe sex.
In a measure of the dismay felt by many women particularly, the niece of Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Kananelo Sexwale, had accused Zuma in comments on Facebook social networking site of the "stereotypical bad behavior of a randy black womanizer."
She was later forced to apologize for "disrespect to an elder."
South Africa has the world's highest burden of the disease, which is mainly transmitted through unprotected sex. An estimated 5.7 million people in the country, or one in nine, is HIV-positive.
As recently as World Aids Day on December 1, Zuma had urged South Africans to protect themselves against HIV infection - remarks that had been understood as promoting the use of condoms.
While still insisting, as he did in earlier statement on Wednesday, that the matter was "private" and that he had fulfilled his responsibilities towards the mother and child by paying customary damages to the Khoza family in keeping with the Zulu tradition - Zuma said he recognized his responsibility "to uphold and promote" the values of "personal responsibility, respect and dignity."
The ANC, which has stood by him publicly throughout the week-long furore, welcomed Zuma's apology as a sign of his "integrity and honesty" and appealed to all South Africans to "to put this matter to rest."
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