南非非洲人國民議會成員近日提議減少對總統祖瑪多名妻子的財政支持，稱國家只有義務幫助總統供養第一位妻子，其他幾位妻子的生活用度應由總統本人負擔。因南非國民議會在縮小貧富差距方面舉措不力，引得國民不滿情緒日益高漲，祖瑪所在的政黨成員才會有此提議。祖瑪現年70歲，有過六次婚姻，現有四名妻子和20個孩子。他在2009到2010年度的“配偶補助”金額為120萬英鎊（約合190萬美元），主要涵蓋他四名妻子的個人助理、電話、筆記本電腦、打印機，以及國內外出行的交通和住宿花費。如若該提議得以通過，祖瑪的“配偶補助”金額將大幅縮減。

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's polygamous president, faces losing ￡1.2 million ($1.9 million) budgetary support for his four wives after African National Congress (ANC) members said taxpayers should only have to pay for one.

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's polygamous president, faces losing ￡1.2 million ($1.9 million) budgetary support for his four wives after African National Congress (ANC) members said taxpayers should only have to pay for one.

Mr Zuma, 70, and his family currently benefit from a spousal support allowance that is almost double that of his predecessors. His wives take turns to travel with him and otherwise divide their time between individual, luxury thatched huts in his rural homestead and homes in South Africa's cities.

But amid growing anger about the ANC's failure to narrow a gaping wealth divide between rich and poor, members of the president's own party have suggested that he should be paying more for his lifestyle choice.

Activists gathering for a provincial meeting in the Eastern Cape have backed a proposal, for just the first of Mr Zuma's wives to be supported by the state, to be put to the party's national policy conference in Johannesburg next week.

"As taxpayers, we cannot afford to continue financing so many wives," a member of the party's economic transformation committee told East London's Daily Dispatch newspaper. "Only wife number one should get benefits from the state. Our understanding is that when you decide to have more than one wife, you are able to support the others. Then deal with it."

Mr Zuma has been married six times and has four current wives and an estimated 20 children.

His latest marriage, in April this year, was to Gloria Bongekile Ngema in a traditional ceremony in his home village of Nkandla. The union once again stirred up debate about the Zulu president's polygamy.

The presidential budget for "spousal support" was ￡1.2m in 2009/10, almost double the cost during Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe's terms in office.

Mac Maharaj, Mr Zuma's spokesman, has insisted that it was "grossly incorrect" to suggest that taxpayers paid for the upkeep of his wives.

"The spouses pay their own living or household expenses, be it food, mortgages, lights, water and so forth," he said.

A parliamentary answer in 2010 revealed that the budget is spent on personal staff for the wives, including a secretary and researcher, phones, laptops and printers, domestic air travel and accommodation on non-presidential business and international travel and expenses on presidential business.

It is understood that the president's wives are entitled to medical aid and security, and that his children's domestic travel is funded by the presidential office.

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(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）