Speculation about who will be the Number One First Lady has clearly made an impression on at least two of President Jacob Zuma’s three wives.
Reports of rivalry between Nompumelelo Ntuli (35), and Zuma’s newest bride, Tobeka Madiba (38), include the newcomer shoving Ntuli out of the way at a photo opportunity with Zuma just after his inauguration last year, and Ntuli snubbing the wedding celebrations of Madiba-Zuma on Monday.
Traditionally Zuma’s first wife, the elderly Sizakele Khumalo, should rule the roost.
But MaKhumalo, as she is known, is the retiring type who prefers pottering around the Nkandla homestead to the jet-setting life of a president’s wife.
A stern statement from the presidency in response to the Mail & Guardian‘s inquiries about the customary hierarchies among wives of presidents within polygamous unions did little to clarify matters.
“The president will be accompanied by any of the spouses to official or public engagements, or all of them at the same time should he so decide.
“This is his prerogative and has been the practice since he took office.”
The traditionalist Zuma has fulfilled African protocol by presenting Khumalo first to the nation after his inauguration and getting her to tag along on African jaunts — his first official state visit, to Angola, being one example.
But she retires into the background during most other official engagements, whether they include watching Bafana Bafana at the Condeferations Cup or transcontinental trips that require shimmying up to the likes of the Obamas during the climate change talks in Copenhagen recently.
On these more glitzy jaunts — where shopping and sightÂseeing are the order of the day — the often star-struck Ntuli has draped herself on the president’s arm. Sources say she is insecure about slipping down the pecking order of glam engagements. Which would explain the long-running distaste wives two and three have for each other.
Is it more politically expedient for Zuma to have the seemingly more accomplished Madiba by his side rather than the new-money MaNtuli?
And where will that leave wife number two? Surely not fishing chicken feed from under her French manicure with wife number one, Khumalo?
The M&G understands that the acrimony has descended into Âpettiness on several occasions, including when, before the elections, Madiba purchased furniture for all the houses in the Zuma compound but left out Ntuli’s. Wife two has apparently never forgiven wife three.
But already the seemingly more sophisticated Madiba is emerging as a favourite — and her name is no coincidence. A prenuptial announcement made it clear that Tobeka’s long-held Mabhija surname was her mother’s. Consequently, she reverted to her paternal surname, Madiba — her father hails from the Madiba clan in the Eastern Cape — and would henceforth be known as Tobeka Madiba.
If Zuma — who has been at pains to spin his presidency as a return to the reconciliatory themes and values of the Nelson Mandela (of the Madiba clan) era- intends to glean some of the Madiba magic stardust through his newest wife, it is already proving a successful gambit.
KwaZulu-Natal newspapers were quick to pick up on it, with the The Mercury‘s front-page headline this week crowing that a “Madiba-Zuma alliance is born” — as though Zuma’s wife had been thrust straight from Mandela’s loins on to the isigcawu (the arena used for the traditional dance and ritual part of the marriage ceremony).
Despite the tenuous link, having a Madiba on one’s arm cannot be underrated in terms of Zuma’s progressive construction of himself as a Mandela-Messiah Mach II figure to South Africans — and even to international leaders in awe of the ageing Mandela.
Polygamy 101
So, President Jacob Zuma has taken his third concurrent wife. Is that legal?
Yes. The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act of 1998 (RCMA) makes provisions for polygamy and customary marriages. In KwaZulu-Natal customary marriages were first recognised through the Natal Code of Zulu Law (1985) and KwaZulu Act (1987), and such marriages gained national recognition when the RCMA came into effect in 2000. The Constitutional Court in 2008 confirmed a ruling that found parts of section 7 of the legislation to be invalid for discriminating against women, but this excluded polygamous marriages.
Ooh, can I start setting up my personal harem?
That depends on whether you’re married already and what type of union it is. The RCMA is clear on precluding anyone already in a civil union from entering into a customary marriage. Likewise, if you’re in a customary marriage you are unable to enter into a civil union in line with the Marriages Act of 1961, but there is an option to convert provided that the customary marriage is still a monogamous one.
Bigamy is still illegal under common law, thus precluding monogamists married under the Marriages Act in a civil union from planning on having more than one wife. Should the desire be strong enough, such dreamers would need to get a divorce and gun for a customary marriage.
But I read somewhere that President Zuma married his new wife in a civil union before this week’s customary knot-tying. Is he breaking the law?
He might be. We tried to confirm the details of the President’s civil union with his office. But the presidency said it was a private matter and would not answer this question. Yet according to legal experts working in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, the practice of engaging in both types of union — civil and customary — is pretty common.
It can lead to all sorts of problems further down the line, though, when estate disputes arise once a male spouse dies.
Some male spouses register only one or two of their customary marriages, if any. Others may just have their civil union registered. This reduces inheritance claims to a race to home affairs with one’s paperwork: whoever gets there first wins.
It also means those wives without registered documentation can end up with nothing.
So what are the inheritance rights of the wives of a polygamist? Or how does it work if sharing isn’t really caring and someone wants a divorce?
Customary marriages have community of property status, except polygamous ones, such as Zuma’s, which will continue to be regulated by Zulu customary law. In this arrangement the concept of private property is replaced by communal property, giving wives usage rights over that property and security of tenure in the case of land.
Until recently Zulu customary marriages concluded after the promulgation of the RCMA had community of property status.
Previously they were subject to the KwaZulu Act on the Code of Zulu Law (1985) and the Natal Code of Zulu Law (1987), which made the family head (who could be the husband or his eldest male son) owner and controller of all family property.
But this provision was declared to be constitutionally invalid by the Constitutional Court last year in the landmark Gumede judgment.
Luckily, too, because Section 22 of the Natal Code, which was also determined to be unconstitutional, states that “inmates of a kraal irrespective of sex or age are in respect of all family matters be [sic] under the control of and owe obedience to the family head”. Which isn’t very nice to women.
My wife’s the jealous type. Do you think I could get away with sneaking a few more wives under the mattress?
No. Especially not if you’re a Zulu. Tradition dictates that your first wife needs to sanction any other wives. That said, we hear of many cases of unilateral decisions taken by men who impose further wives on an unwilling first wife. — Niren Tolsi and Sello Alcock
Also read Zuma-style home economics