Jacob Zuma admits fathering 20th child

(Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images)

Jacob Zuma dances at his wedding to latest wife Thobeka Madiba

Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa and probably the world's most famous polygamist, has admitted fathering his 20th child with a woman who is neither one of his three wives nor a fiancée.

Mr Zuma's statement is his first comment on the subject since it was reported last week that he had fathered the child, a girl, with a long-time family friend, who is also the daughter of one of the organisers of this year's World Cup finals.

South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper reported that Sonono Khoza, 39, the divorced daughter of Irvin Khoza, chairman of the country’s 2010 World Cup Organising Committee, had given birth to a girl in October – three months before Mr Zuma married his third wife in a traditional Zulu ceremony.

Critics accuse the 67-year-old President, whose sexual antics appall many liberal Souty Africans and anti-Aids activists, of undermining the country's campaign against Hiv-Aids.

In his statement Mr Zuma attacked his critics, saying: "It is mischievous to argue that I have changed or undermined government's stance on the HIV and Aids campaign.I will not compromise on the campaign. Rather we will intensify our efforts to promote prevention, treatment, research and the fight against the stigma, attached to the epidemic."

His latest child has been registered in the name of Thandekile Matina Zuma, according to the Sunday Times. She is the twentieth to be acknowledged by the President, who is to marry a fourth wife this year.

Brian Sokutu, a spokesman for the African National Congress Party, said that the president's relationship with a fifth woman was not adulterous because Mr Zuma was a polygamist who might have been planning to marry her.

Last month Mr Zuma defended polygamy before a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He dismissed claims that polygamy was unfair to women and said that he treated his wives equally.

"That's my culture. It does not take anything from me, from my political beliefs and everything, including the belief on the equality of women," he told a panel discussion at Davos.

Mr Zuma wed Thobeka Madiba, his third wife, two years after he married Nompumelelo Ntuli. He remains married to Sizakele Khumalo, the most senior wife, whom he wed in 1973. His first wife, Kate Mantsho Zuma, committed suicide in 2000. He divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is Home Affairs Minister, in 1998.

He is also engaged to Gloria Bongi Ngema, from Durban, whose family presented gifts to Mr Zuma’s extended family last month.

Mr Khoza, owner of the Soweto-based Orlando Pirates football team, is said to have told family friends that he felt betrayed by Mr Zuma's relationship