Le droit de seigneur or dirty old man?

Our President, he of the many wives, the charming smile, dancing and laughing; and the same who is famous the world over for a rape trial, a shower, fraud allegations and dubious friends is in the news again. This time he is making news for his twentieth child, it's famous maternal grandfather and unprotected sex. It's all getting very muddy indeed - for both his supporters and his detractors - but not for him.

Men with power often behave badly. Throughout history, Kings, Princes and Chiefs have taken advantage of women who were not their wives, sometimes repeatedly. Once the big man had tired of a certain wife or concubine she was parcelled off to a nunnery, divorced, discarded or even executed. Lately, men like Tiger Woods, John Terry and John Edwards have been caught using their power for mischief with women. Even if the women consent, that doesn't make it OK, does it?

I think people's private business is their private business, but there is a duty on them to do no harm, to have a conscience and to make sure that their indiscretions (and we all have them - major or minor) don't impact badly on their responsibilities or other people. Last year, when Kgalema Motlanthe's affairs were exposed, I stood by him. He was entitled to his privacy and he was doing his job. Would I be a hypocrite if I demanded something different from Jacob Zuma?

This has put me in a quandary. I don't believe government, religious organisations or your neighbours have any right whatsoever to interfere in your lawful, private conduct. I will stick to my guns here. I'm a libertarian. That said, I have very serious misgivings about the present situation. My problems with the President are:

1. He's irresponsibly bringing a lot of kids into the world - and he can't be as attentive a father with so many offspring, all the more with his very busy job.

2. We have major problems in South Africa with people who can't afford to have many children, having large families. It burdens the whole state with additional, unneccesary responsibilities, and adds to the environmental burden. Earth is full.

3. South Africa is at the epicentre of the HIV-AIDS pandemic. This is spread so rapidly; primarily by unprotected, multiple-partner sex. It is everyone's duty to take personal responsibility for their sexual behaviour. Putting culture and morality aside, it is a matter of life and death.

4. He's not focussed on his job. He is plainly incapable of seeing to his duties when attractive women are in attendance. There is enough evidence of this in his colourful testimony during the rape trial. Our President has a very clear penchant for sexual activity, rhetoric, dancing and laughing - but none of these things makes our country a better, safer or more successful place. Not for us, anyway.

5. He's costing the state a lot of money with his very expensive, large family. Nobody minds looking after a civil servant's justifiable expenses, but this is taking advantage.

6. He's not setting a terrific example, an his excuse is weak. He's not a psychopath, and he's not amoral, but he's using culture as a very broad, very tenuous excuse for some very selfish, egotistical, almost primal arrogance.

7. The only thing the International Community seem to know about him is that he's a sex machine. This did poor Bill Clinton no good, and he didn't even father one bastard. He's paraded on television at Davos - not to answer serious questions about the World or local economy - but because he's not taken very seriously, almost as an object of some ridicule. In this, he skirts dangerously close to becoming a kind of modern Sara Baartman. Quite apart from the racist reasons that this might be perpetuated, he's not helping to change perceptions for the better. To them he's a curiosity, not a credible peer.

Finally, it's a do-as-I-say situation, not a do-as-I-do one. It would seem that the rules are different for people in politics or people connected to politics. They are not subject to the same judgement as we, ordinary people are. I'd like to have 8 children, but I cannot even afford a wife, let alone a single child. His comrades will excuse almost any stupid things he or his cabinet do, because they're feathering their own nests and his presence at the top is expedient for their own ambitions. They, therefore cannot be taken seriously as his arbiters in this matter. Imagine how you would feel if your father's older friend knocked-up your sister? I doubt you'd be comfortable with that.

In short, Mr. President - we like you. Please stop trying so hard to nail everything, because slowly but surely, you're nailing yourself to a cross.

G