Third wife s no show raises eyebrows
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma ’ s third wife Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma did not attend the opening of parliament yesterday, amid reports that the pair had separated.
Since Zuma was appointed president in 2009, his wives had been attending the opening of Parliament.
It was the first time that Ntuli-Zuma missed the occasion.
Recently, a Sunday newspaper reported that Zuma and Ntuli-Zuma had separated and that she no longer attends events at Zuma ’ s homestead at Nkandla in KZN.
Tensions between Ntuli-Zuma and the Zuma started in 2010 when it was reported that she had an affair with the president ’ s bodyguard. The bodyguard, Phinda Thomo from Dobsonville, Soweto, allegedly committed suicide when the affair was discovered.
But it was later reported that the president had forgiven her.
However, this year Sunday Sun reported that Ntuli-Zuma, commonly known as MaNtuli, had been excluded from the spousal office following tension in her marriage.
According to the presidency ’ s website, the spousal office “supports the spouses of the president and deputy president in their partnership role in presidential, ceremonial, state and executive functions and in all other duties and responsibilities related to their positions as spouses ”.
Ntuli was also in the news early last year following a court case involving a Tanzanian man accused of threatening her with a claim that Zuma was not the father of one of her children.
In April 2014, the Durban Regional Court fined Steven John Masunga R10 000 or three months in prison for having tried to force Ntuli-Zuma to arrange a business meeting for him with her husband by sending her text messages falsely claiming to be the father of her child, and falsely accused her of trying to kill her bodyguard.
In November 2010, she also made headlines after settling a Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration labour dispute involving a domestic worker who had claimed she had been unfairly dismissed.