Zuma village in sixth wedding celebrations

SOUTH AFRICA’S President Jacob Zuma on Saturday celebrated his sixth wedding in a second day of weekend festivities filled with traditional Zulu culture.

Sunday, April 22, 2012
President Jacob Zuma attends his wedding ceremony in traditional costume at his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, April 20, 2012. Zuma married his fourth wife Bongi Ngema on Friday, his office announced. Xinhua.

SOUTH AFRICA’S President Jacob Zuma on Saturday celebrated his sixth wedding in a second day of weekend festivities filled with traditional Zulu culture.The 70-year-old formalised his relationship with long-time fianceBongi Ngema on Friday with Zulu song and dance while dressed in leopard skins and carrying a shield surrounded by men in similar warrior attire.The businesswoman became Zuma’s fourth wife in Nkandla, deep in the KwaZulu-Natal countryside, where on Saturday she handed presents to Zuma’s family at his homestead in a gift ceremony.Friday afternoon’s tying of the knot was followed by a glitzy western-style evening reception with a tiered cake where the couple donned formal wear in a marquee erected on the grounds of a local school.The couple have a seven-year-old son and Ngema joins Zuma’s three other wives to become one of four first ladies with all spouses attending the marriage.The wedding is his third in just over four years and the second since coming to power in 2009 as the country’s first president with multiple wives.In all, he has married six times and has 21 children. One of his wives has died, and another -- home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- divorced him.