Zuma's 'Big Love' Costs South Africa Big Bucks

(March 18) -- Polygamous politicians don't come cheap, South Africans are discovering. Taxpayers there are coughing up more than $2 million a year to support President Jacob Zuma's three wives and 20 children. And that hefty bill doesn't include the African National Congress head's own annual salary of $308,000.

Opposition parties have condemned the spousal budget -- revealed on Wednesday following a parliamentary request by the Democratic Alliance (DA) party -- as "exorbitant." They point out that the president's family receives more than double the amount claimed by his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. (Individually, though, Zuma's wives are a better deal than Mbeki's sole spouse, Zanele, who cost South Africans $1 million a year.)

"It is quite shocking that the taxpayers have to fund the lifestyle of the president," Phillip Dexter, spokesman for the Congress of the People party, told the Eye Witness News Web site.

The travel and accommodations bills for all of the wives are covered by the state, according to Collins Chabane, a minister in the presidency. They're also handed laptops and cell phones, and they all have access to their own private secretary and researcher. These government employees help the women "pursue their own careers and interests," Chabane told the South African Times.

He noted that Zuma's first wife, Sizakele Zuma, is engaged in community work "relating to agriculture and food security," and that Thobeka Zuma, the president's third wife, takes part in community health projects.

Zuma's ever-growing brood also receives a glut of benefits. They're entitled to 60 domestic economy-class flights a year. Children under 8 are provided with child minders. And these perks apply to all of the president's kids, including those born out of wedlock, such as the baby he recently admitted to fathering with 39-year-old Sonono Khoza.

DA leader Helen Zille told the South African Times that the size of Zuma's family "makes corruption almost inevitable," as "it is impossible for anyone, even on a president's salary, to look after a family of the size of Zuma's without relying extensively on private benefactors and the taxpayers' money."

She suggested this was why he "needed friends like Schabir Shaik," Zuma's former financial adviser, who in 2005 was found guilty of soliciting a bribe on behalf of the then deputy president.

Zuma's African National Congress party has rejected those criticisms and accused Zille of being guilty of "cultural intolerance of the worst type." The ANC's chief whip, Mathole Serofo Motshekga, said in a statement that opposition members shouldn't "belittle" or "mock" the president's Zulu heritage, which encourages men to take more than one wife.

However, Zuma mocking isn't confined to the opposition. It is now practically a national pastime. Every new embarrassing story about the ANC leader is lapped up by the public, from major stories like his illicit affairs to even minor revelations.

Like the fact that he received a gift of blue pajamas and bedsheets from Italy's own scandal-prone leader, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.