SA: "First Family" in Crisis

The Zuma family — South Africa’s First Family and once the advert for a harmonious bigamist marriage — is showing cracks in the spotlight.

Bless!

It follows a letter leaked to the media carrying allegations that President Jacob Zuma’s second (out of four) wife Nompumelelo Ntuli (MaNtuli) is pregnant with her bodyguard’s child and that the bodyguard has since reportedly committed suicide.

The besieged 'family' has predictably described the letter, which states to be from concerned family members, as a smear campaign against MaNtuli, aimed at undermining the president even further.

Sources close to the family say it is probable that a family member has written the letter, given some of the intimate details contained in it. There is also speculation that a close family friend who has since fallen out of favour with the president may be involved.

The sources said they are bewildered that the allegations against MaNtuli are being aired in the public domain. But they said MaNtuli’s popularity within the family has fallen following her 'bad behaviour' (jealous fit) when the president announced he was going to take another wife. What a surprise - a wife being angry after finding out her husband is to marry another woman, not bothering with divorce first!

"She is not very popular within the family right now because of her rude behaviour," said a source! DUH! The furore surrounding the letter has exposed the cracks in Zuma’s polygamous marriage, with several newspapers divulging details of MaNtuli’s 'meltdown' when she heard he was to take a third wife.

The Mail & Guardian reported that she was fined a goat in April for her "bad behaviour". The newspaper also reports that MaNtuli "went berserk" when the president called her to Pretoria late last year to inform her of his pending parallel nuptials. Ntuli allegedly broke security gates and lashed out at the police who guard Zuma. Good for her!

'Family' spokesperson Khulubuse Zuma described the current furore with a sense of paranoia as a continuation of the attack on the person of the president and his political career. He ranted on, spewing "it is particularly shameful and alarming that the president’s political enemies have now taken to masquerading as members of his family who spread malicious innuendo about him and his family."

Sources said there will be a Zuma clan meeting in Nkandla this weekend to thrash out this and other issues. Special! They added that they believed MaNtuli was unhappy [no shit!], especially after she was embarrassed over unpaid electricity and water bills at her Durban home. Yet, the embarassing Zuma took her both to the 25th Africa-France summit at the beginning of the week and on to the state visit of India.