Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress leader who is poised to be the next president of South Africa, has taken another wife in a Zulu tradition of polygamy that coexists uneasily with calls for gender equality in the country.

Newly-elected ANC president Jacob Zuma married another wife in a ceremony on Saturday.
(Denis Farrell/Associated Press)

Zuma, 65, married Nompumelelo Ntuli, the 33-year-old mother of two of his children, in a low-key Zulu ceremony Saturday at his home in rural KwaZulu-Natal, according to the South African Press Association and radio reports.

This is at least the fourth marriage for Zuma, who keeps his private life under wraps. He is said to have more than 10 children and at least one other wife. He is divorced from South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, while another of his wives committed suicide eight years ago.

Zuma, who is dogged by controversy, was elected on Dec. 18 as leader of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress. He defeated the country's current president, Thabo Mbeki, and it is expected Zuma will take over as president when Mbeki steps down in 2009.

Zuma has been in the spotlight since he won the election. Only a few days after his victory, prosecutors ordered him to stand trial in August on charges of corruption, money laundering, racketeering and fraud.

Zuma supporters, including the powerful trade union movement and ANC Youth League, accused Mbeki of seeking to avenge his humiliation by pressuring prosecutors to revive charges against Zuma that were dropped on a technicality in 2006. Mbeki's office and the prosecuting authority have denied that claim.

Zuma was put on trial in 2005 for allegedly raping a longtime family friend. He was acquitted, but only after admitting in court that he knowingly had unprotected sex with the HIV-positive woman and showered after intercourse, thinking it would reduce his risk of contracting the virus. 

The ruling ANC, which started as a liberation movement, has pushed for gender equality and women's rights in South Africa. Many women who called in to national talk shows Friday, after news of the wedding emerged, said that Zuma's polygamy was not in keeping with the party's principles.

Zulu tradition allows men to have more than one wife, but the practice is limited, because it is costly and against the Western norms that are increasingly pervading South African society. No legislative moves have been made, however, to abolish the practice, considered part of South Africa's cultural diversity.