Gloria Bongi Ngema will officially become President Jacob Zuma’s sixth wife when the couple tie the knot at a traditional ceremony in Nkandla this weekend. It is unclear when the couple officially started seeing each other, but Zuma’s intention to marry Ngema became clear in 2009 when she visited the president’s rural homestead in Nkandla with an official gift for the household, a sign that lobola had been paid in full for her hand in marriage. The president and Ngema have a three-year-old son and his bride-to-be has already accompanied him on a diplomatic trip to France in March last year.
Ngema hails from Umlazi township, south of Durban, and has numerous tertiary qualifications, including a marketing diploma and a degree in business administration from the Institute for Marketing Management. She is said to be studying towards her master’s in business administration with Regenesys Business School.
In April 2011, the Mail & Guardian revealed that Ngema was appointed head of the communications and marketing department at JIC Mining Services, which is majority-owned by the Zuma-friendly Gupta family.
She previously worked for IT firm IBM and accounting conglomerate Deloitte as a business consultant.
In August 2010, Ngema launched the Bongi Ngema-Zuma Foundation, which aims to raise awareness about diabetes, a disease that claimed her mother, Prisca Ngema, who was diagnosed and lived with diabetes for nearly three decades.
According to the foundation’s website, its vision is “that no person should die because of a lack of awareness about diabetes”. It also aims to drive the “empowerment of women and children, rural development, education and health programmes” related to the disease.
The website lists Ngema as the “first lady of the Republic of South Africa, Madam Bongi Ngema-Zuma”.
The presidency would not shed any further light on how the couple met and the nature of their union.
“People need to realise this is a private matter and the president is under no obligation to divulge any information about his wives or the relationships he shares with them,” said Zuma’s spokesperson, Mac Maharaj. He said the couple would be married in a private family ceremony that would be fully paid for by Zuma himself.