Jacob Zuma and his latest partner Nonkanyiso Conco | Image: Instagram
Jacob Zuma and his 25-year-old fiance Nonkanyiso Conco have allegedly split up.
Sunday Sun reports that sources close to the couple claim they broke up late last year and Conco has moved out of the home Zuma was renting for her at Zimbali’s plush Hilltop Private Estate in Durban.
Insiders allegedly told the publication that Conco was instructed by the Zuma family to keep the separation under wraps.
Security personnel at the estate reportedly told the publication that Conco had moved out of her home last December shortly after her last visit from Zuma.
Her estranged father, Fartescue Cocnco, confirmed that she has moved to her mother’s home in the Eastern Cape.
Nonkanyiso and Fartescue have had a strained relationship since her relationship with the country’s former president went public. This, allegedly due to the fact that Zuma had not shown her family respect by completing all the necessary rites and rituals for their relationship and the two-year-old child they share.
Conco made headlines earlier this year after an Instagram post she put up was interpreted to mean that she was raising her son without the help of his father.
In an Instagram post addressed to her son, Conco expressed her gratitude to him and said he was the reason she needed to work harder.
She said there were circumstances that required the presence of both parents in a child’s life and when one parent was not available to fulfil their duties it caused heart-wrenching pain.
She then implored her son to remember that she was a single, young parent who had her own aspirations and dreams, should he find himself in trying circumstances or was engulfed with confusion in future.
“I have made peace with that I’ll attend school activities alone, travel the world with him alone and take all responsibilities on raising a boy child and installing best values in his life,” she wrote.
According to Sunday Tribune, she later denied painting him as an absent father, claiming it was all a misunderstanding.
She told the publication that the post was “a declaration of a young woman who is marrying a polygamous man” and she had made peace that theirs was not an ordinary union.
“Any person with common sense would understand that a man who was a head of state and has such a large family wouldn’t have time for things like walking a child to a park, attending doctor’s appointments or just to buy ice cream at a mall every day,” said Conco.
“We all know for a man like Mr Zuma it’s impossible to run family errands every day or to be there for every special day. He missed our son’s first birthday celebration I hosted last year because he was out of the country, but this year could be different. He misses many of our son’s milestones. However, we can’t expect him to be there every day.”
A rumoured reality show that was expected to give a glimpse into the life of Zuma and his polygamous life with Conco at the centre will now also no longer feature the family and will be centred around Conco instead.
(Compiled by Kaunda Selisho)
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