South Africa's President Jacob Zuma listens to questions during a press conference of G5 countries on the sidelines of a G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy.
South African opposition parties accused President Jacob Zuma of a cavalier attitude to safe sex that is hurting the AIDS campaign after news that a woman who is not one of his wives has had his 20th child.
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said Mr. Zuma, 68, was sending the wrong message to South Africans, among the world's worst sufferers from AIDS.
"There are some people who may argue that Jacob Zuma's sex life is a matter of private morality or 'culture,' but this is not so. His personal behaviour has profound public consequences," DA Leader Helen Zille said in a statement Monday.
At least 5.7 million South Africans are infected with the AIDS virus and the disease kills an estimated 1,000 people a day.
The African Christian Democratic Party said Mr. Zuma was undermining the government's drive to persuade people to practise safe sex to combat AIDS.
"His conduct undermines his own government's message on AIDS, because they are talking about safe sex and the President is continuing without using condoms. He is undermining the message of his government," said ACDP Leader Kenneth Meshoe.
A source close to Mr. Zuma told Reuters that the President, a traditionalist who practises polygamy and has three wives, had acknowledged in a legal document being the father of a child with Sonono Khoza, 39.
Ms. Khoza, the daughter of Irvin Khoza who heads the local organizing committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, gave birth to a girl October last year.
"Zuma acknowledges that the child is his and accepted full responsibility," the source said. Sonono Khoza has undertaken not to speak to the media, the source added.
The presidency has said previously that Mr. Zuma has 19 children.
A presidential spokesman on Tuesday called the issue "private, personal" without confirming or denying the report.
"Those who have laid judgment on the president in a matter that is entirely a private, personal issue, can they subject themselves to a public audit of their private lives?" said Zuma spokesman Vincent Magwenya in an e-mail from Ethiopia, where the president was attending an African Union summit.
Mr. Zuma married for the fifth time last month, taking Tobeka Madiba as his third current wife. Multiple marriages are allowed in South Africa and form part of Zulu culture, but the practice has drawn criticism from AIDS activists.
Mr. Zuma defended polygamy at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Asked whether he treated all his wives equally, Mr. Zuma replied: "Absolutely, totally equally."
He is also married to Sizakele Zuma, 67, his first wife whom he wed in 1973, and Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma whom he married in 2007.
He was previously married to Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whom he divorced in 1998, and Kate Mantsho-Zuma, who committed suicide in 2000.
With a file from The Associated Press