Controversy is never far away from ANC president Jacob Zuma. - File

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP):

The new African National Congress (ANC) leader and heir apparent for the presidency, Jacob Zuma, took another wife - in a Zulu tradition of polygamy that coexists uneasily with calls for gender equality in modern South Africa.

With a corruption scandal brewing around him, 65-year-old Zuma married Nompumelelo Ntuli, a 33-year-old mother of two of his children, in a low-keyed Zulu ceremony Saturday at his home in rural KwaZulu-Natal, according to the South African Press Association and radio.

It was reportedly at least the fourth marriage for Zuma, who keeps his private life under wraps. He is said to have more than 10 children and at least one other wife. He is divorced from South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, and another of his wives committed suicide eight years ago.

Next national president

Zuma has been in the spotlight since he defeated incumbent Thabo Mbeki to become leader of the African National Congress last month, and hopes to become national president when Mbeki stands down in 2009. However, within days of his victory, prosecutors ordered him to stand trial in August on charges of corruption, money laundering, racketeering and fraud.

Zuma supporters - including the powerful trade union movement and ANC Youth League - accused Mbeki of seeking to avenge his humiliation by putting pressure on the National Prosecuting Authority to revive charges against Zuma that were dropped on a technicality in 2006. Mbeki's office and the prosecuting authority have denied this.

Zuma was on trial in 2005 for allegedly raping a long-time family friend. He was acquitted, but only after he admitted in court that he knowingly had unprotected sex with the HIV-positive woman and showered after intercourse, thinking it would reduce the risk of contracting the virus. He said the woman had been wearing a skirt - and that he interpreted this as inviting his sexual advances.

The ruling ANC - which started as a liberation movement - has pushed gender equality and women's rights in South Africa. Many women who called in to national talk shows Friday, when news of the wedding emerged, said that Zuma's plans to take another wife went against this.

Zulu traditions allow men to take more than one wife. But the practice is limited, due to the fact that it is costly and runs against the Western norms that are increasingly pervading the society. No legislative moves have been made, however, to abolish the practice, considered part of South Africa's cultural diversity.

On Saturday, two of South Africa's top legal figures, retired chief justice Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos, who defended Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid leaders, entered the fray over the corruption charges. They disputed claims by Zuma supporters that he did not stand chance of a fair trial, and voiced concern at threats of popular unrest.

Massive demonstrations

"Putting pressure on the courts by making serious allegations of partiality, uttering threats of massive demonstrations, and expressing opinions in intemperate language are harmful to the judicial process, to our constitutional democracy and to our country's reputation,'' they said in a statement to the South African Press Association.

Chaskalson, an anti-apartheid lawyer, was president of the Constitutional Court from 1994 to 2001 and its chief justice in 2001-2005. Bizos has acted as counsel to Mandela since the mid-1950s.

Mbeki fired Zuma as the country's deputy president in 2005 after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of trying to elicit bribes from French arms company Thint. Prosecutors contend Zuma was aware of efforts to secure the bribes on his behalf in exchange for using his influence to halt an investigation into a multibillion-dollar arms deal between Thint and the government.

Prosecutors now say they have additional evidence implicating Zuma.

The ANC's national executive committee meets for the first time today since Zuma was elected. It is expected to be a stormy affair, with the new charges against Zuma exacerbating tensions between the new party leader and Mbeki.