It can’t be easy trying to keep all four of your wives happy. You might have a rather fine abode with every amenity under the sun (thanks, taxpayers) but sometimes you’re just spreading yourself a little thin and someone is bound to get bleak.

That someone, it seems, was Zuma’s wife Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma. According to sources in the know she has been banned from the Nkandla homestead for some rather sinister reasons. TimesLive reports:

…she had been cast out related to suspicion by the president of her involvement in an alleged plan to poison him [Zuma].

It was around June of last year that Zuma was hospitalised after falling ill and surfaced ten days later looking worse for wear. Then, during a trip to the US two months later, Zuma again fell ill and tests taken at the time revealed the presence of poison.

Now there has been much speculation about their strained relationship of late with Ntuli-Zuma absent from both SONA and JZ’s annual Christmas party. Various media outlets have long reported on the unravelling of the relationship between the two. TimesLive again:

A direct link between Ntuli-Zuma and a poison plot could not be conclusively established. It is understood that the president believed that she had been motivated by herunhappiness [sic] at being sidelined since allegations of reports that she may have had an extramarital affair surfaced a few years ago.

Some media commentators were critical of the Sunday Times for leading with the story on the front page despite the fact that a direct link remains unconfirmed.

I suppose whether or not you believe the allegations depends on how much integrity you place on ‘inside sources’. Maybe JZ should get a team of tasters in to nibble on anything presented to him before he chows down. Job creation at its finest.

[sources:timeslive,m&g]