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| Mr Zuma was in rural areas on Saturday to urge people to register for upcoming local elections AFP |
South Africa's main
opposition party has accused President Jacob Zuma
of making "outrageously sexist" comments when he told
female journalists on Saturday that it had become difficult to
compliment women in a "white man's world", the News24 site reports.
Mr
Zuma, who has four wives, said modern women were too quick to say they
were being harassed when men were innocently complimenting them, it
reports.
"It's
a pity we live in a white man's world; you can't even say 'Gqezu, Gqezu
ntomazane! Nongenazo izinkomo uyayidla inyama'," it quotes him as
saying.
This
was a Zulu saying loosely meaning that even if you don't have enough money to
pay lobola [dowry], you can still get married, News24 says.
Mr
Zuma added that if men could compliment women the way they did in the
past, his bodyguards would compliment the journalists, News 24 reports.
"But
when men compliment you innocently, you say it's harassment. You will miss out
on good men and marriage," Mr Zuma said, laughing, it adds.
He
reportedly made the comments while being accompanied by one of
his wives, Tobeka Madiba Zuma, and their eight-year-old
daughter, during a voter registration campaign in his rural heartland of
KwaZulu-Natal.
In
her reaction, Democratic Alliance (DA) party spokeswoman Phumzile Van
Damme said the comments were "outrageously sexist and an insult to every
single woman in our country".
“It
is precisely this patriarchal attitude that allows for women to remain the
subjects of high levels of violence and sexual abuse throughout our country,”
Ms Van Damme said, News24 reports.
“It is also this sort of
thinking that keeps women locked out of the economy, and out of jobs that could
bring a much needed income to their family,” she added.
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