South African President Jacob Zuma marries wife No. 5

Zuma's polygamy sits uneasily with the ruling party's commitment to gender equality and has been criticized by women's rights and AIDS activists. But despite the disquiet in some quarters, Monday's wedding passed without media controversy.

Reporting focused on the huge crowd that tramped through mud to join the wedding celebrations; the large bed reportedly delivered to Zuma's rural mansion on the eve of the nuptials; and reports that the 67-year-old president, clad in animal skins and white tennis shoes, fell while performing the Zulu wedding dance.

About 2,000 guests attended the wedding at Zuma's homestead in KwaZulu-Natal province. Sheep and goats were slaughtered for the feast.

Zuma's first wife, Sizakele Khumalo, 67, is a shy rural woman with little education whom Zuma married in 1973. Popularly known as MaKhumalo, she has more than 2,500 adoring fans on Facebook.

In 2008, Zuma married Nompumelelo Ntuli, who, in her mid-30s, is the youngest wife.

Madiba, 38, is the most publicly active, taking on as her causes cervical and breast cancer and AIDS orphans. She and Zuma have three children.

One spouse, Kate Mantsho Zuma, committed suicide in 2000, leaving a note that life with her husband was "hell."

The president divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's current home affairs minister, in 1998.

Zuma reportedly has 19 children. He is also engaged to a Durban woman, Gloria Bongi Ngema, who works for IBM -- and South African media have reported unconfirmed rumors of the president's interest in a Swazi princess.