Imagine the media feeding frenzy if Barack Obama, or Gordon Brown, or Nicolas Sarkozy turned out to have fathered a secret love child.
Jacob Zuma has, it emerged yesterday, after an affair with the daughter of top World Cup administrator Irvin Khoza, who gave birth to his child in October.
The story was a juicy front-page scoop for the local Sunday Times. But listening to a talk radio station this morning, the sense of outrage that one would expect under the circumstances seemed pretty muted. There’s some sharp criticism, sure – but no-one’s really all that surprised, and I’d expect this to be largely forgotten much faster than John Terry’s latest indiscretion.
Why? The Sunday Times sub-headline gives a clue: “Zuma’s child number 20”. When your President has already fathered enough kids to field an entire football team (including five substitutes, two coaches and a physio), and appears in public beaming alongside his three concurrent wives, developments like this are hardly earth-shattering. And when you think back to Zuma’s scandalous 2007 trial for rape (he was acquitted), it pales into insignificance.
Yet that’s not to say that most South Africans cheerfully indulge Zuma’s irrepressible embrace of what he would tell you is a traditional Zulu male role. A largely Western liberal audience giggled delightedly at the World Economic Forum in Davos when Fareed Zakaria asked Zuma whether he loved all his wives equally (“Absolutely!” he grinned).
Within SA, however, Zuma’s polygamy is a subject of heated debate, with many worrying that it encourages the subordination of women. In a country with shocking rates of domestic and sexual abuse, that’s no laughing matter. A poll last month found that 74% of South Africans opposed polygamy – including 68% of black respondents, and 83% of women.
Perhaps the most damaging effect of this latest Zuma story, however, will be on the fight against Aids. Everyone remembers Zuma’s absurd statement, during his rape trial, that he showered after having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman to reduce the risk of infection.
Since becoming president he’s sought to make amends, pushing AIDS up the public agenda. It’s absolutely necessary – SA now has the world’s highest number of infections, thanks largely to former president Thabo Mbeki’s bizarre opposition to the use of antiretroviral drugs.
Zuma’s presidency has brought a welcome change in approach on this crucial matter – he even had a public AIDS test, showing he understands the importance of setting an example on this issue. But given the government is currently running a major campaign to encourage young people to have sex only within a relationship, and not without condoms, the timing of his latest unprotected fling seems unfortunate.
