From IOL, a South African website:
Jacob Zuma’s future bride may not be his last
POLITICS / 21 APRIL 2018, 08:58AM / SHAUN SMILLIEJohannesburg – Former president Jacob Zuma is not planning to ride gently into retirement for he is about wed his seventh wife, who already has his child and is younger than him by half-a-century.
Virginity testing lobbyist Nonkanyiso Conco, 24, confirmed to the media yesterday that she was about to become the next Mrs Zuma, a week after she gave birth to his baby at the Busamed Private Hospital in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal.
I bet there are readers on K Street in DC at this moment texting each other:
Virginity testing lobbying??? That’s a thing? Why don’t WE have any clients paying us to be pro (or anti) virginity testing for them? (Both, ideally.) Somebody in Client Development dropped ball.
Back to IOL:
This is Zuma’s 23rd known child. The two families were believed to be ecstatic and it was reported that Zuma had already paid lobola. …
On September 3, 2013, she had tweeted a day after the annual reed dance: “Don’t believe this, OMG! Am going back to that Hollywood house to spend the whole weekend this time! #Zuma’s home @ Nkandla! Whoopee, can’t wait.”
At the time Conco was the director of the Nomkhubulwane Culture and Youth Development Organisation in Pietermaritzburg and was a strong advocate for virginity testing and abstinence.
This was noted in a controversial comment she made to Independent Media in 2013.
She had said that opening the reed dance festival to other races would dilute the value of the ceremony.
She added anyone who participated in the ceremony should do it in a Zulu traditional way, or not at all.
“First, those Indian and white women should go through virginity testing in a traditional way. I get tested every month. As we were waiting to collect the reeds, police pushed us aside to open a space for Ella to pick up the reed ahead of us and lead us. I felt undermined and insulted,” said Conco.
I’m not exactly sure what this argument was about. Zulu culture is pretty different. On the other hand, this sounds exactly like every Twitter beef involving Kardashians and hip hop stars.
Twitter was divided over the matter. @Phumele Magacayi seemed to support Zuma’s decision saying that it’s part of Zulu custom that an old, respected man takes a young wife for his old age. In isiZulu, it’s called indlu yokugugela which means retirement home.”
… But others didn’t take too kindly to the news. Luphondo@BabalwaLuphondo said: “Our parents went to Durban to support you for the fraud case against you; now we are the laughing stocks of the nation for having your back. Come on baba!” …
There could even be more Mrs Zumas in the future. In 2002, it was reported that Zuma paid 10 cows for a Swazi princess, but the marriage has not been officially announced.
