South African President Jacob Zuma has apologised for fathering a child with a woman who was not his wife.

南非总统雅各布·祖玛就与某女子未婚得子事件向公众致歉。

Jacob Zuma is proud of his Zulu culture

"I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC (African National Congress非洲民族会议), the alliance and South Africans in general," he said.

The daughter of a World Cup chief gave birth to a baby girl last year believed to have been fathered by Mr Zuma.

Mr Zuma, aged¹ 67, is a Zulu, a group which practises polygamy（多配偶） . He has three actual wives and at least 19 children.

Pressure

"I have over the past week taken time to consider and reflect on the issues relating to a relationship I had outside of wedlock²（婚姻） ," Mr Zuma said in a statement, admitting that it "has been a subject of much public discussion and debate".

"It has put a lot of pressure on my family and my organisation³, the African National Congress," the statement said.

Earlier this week, the president confirmed that he was having a relationship with Sonono Khoza - the 39-year-old daughter of World Cup official Irvin Khoza.

He said the matter was "intensely personal" and dismissed（摒弃，开除） as "mischievous⁴（恶作剧的，淘气的） " criticism from activists⁵ who said his actions had undermined（暗地里破坏） official HIV/Aids campaigns.

Mr Zuma was praised last year when he announced major changes to the country's Aids policy, which included increasing the roll-out of anti-retroviral（逆转录病毒的） drugs.

But opposition⁶ parties now say his behaviour contradicts（反驳，否定） the government's stance（立场，姿势） on HIV prevention - preaching regular condom use and faithfulness to one partner.

South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections in the world - more than five million people.

This is not the first time that the president's sex life has been under the spotlight⁷.

In 2006, while being acquitted⁸（释放） of rape⁹, Mr Zuma admitted that he had made a mistake by having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive.

Like Ms Khoza, the woman was also the daughter of a family friend.

Mr Zuma has been married five times in all, most recently in January, and is also engaged to another woman.

He has 19 children according to his office, but it is not clear if that includes the baby born last October.