A row has erupted in South Africa after it emerged taxpayers are spending more than 15.5 million rand (US$2.1 million) a year to support South African President Jacob Zuma’s three wives and some of his 20 children.
The figure, almost double the presidential spousal budget a year ago, was condemned as “exorbitant” by the opposition leader, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who said the size of Zuma’s family “makes corruption almost inevitable.”
This prompted a sharp riposte from the governing African National Congress (ANC), which accused Zille, who is white, of “cultural intolerance.” Zuma is a member of the Zulu tribe, in which polygamy is a traditional practice.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question on Tuesday, Collins Chabane, a minister charged with monitoring government performance, said the state had a 15.5 million rand budget for Zuma’s family this year. This compares with the spousal support office budget of 4.5 million rand in 2005-2006 and 8 million rand in 2008-2009.
The spousal office paid for personal support staff, such as secretaries and researchers, as well as domestic and international air travel and accommodation, Chabane said.
Cell phones for spouses and their secretaries, laptops and printers and a special daily allowance for “incidental” expenses were also covered.
“The state provides all reasonable administrative, logistical and other support to the spouses to enable them to meet these responsibilities in a manner that permits them actively to pursue their own careers and interests if they so desire,” he said.
Thobeka Zuma was engaged in community work related to health, Sizakele Zuma was dealing with agriculture and food security, while Nompumelelo Zuma was working with orphans and vulnerable children, he added.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but