Of all the crazy things I’ve heard since JZ came into power, this is one of the worst. The idea that the media and the public (yes readers, you and me) should not say anything critical of Jacob Zuma because he’s the president is a slap in the face of our already colander-like democracy. Enough now.
When Julius Malema says something stupid, we have a right to tell him that it’s stupid. When Helen Zille elects an all-male cabinet, we have a right to tell her that it’s not constitutional. Similarly, when the President of the Republic has unprotected sex, with someone outside of his marriage, despite claiming that the rest of the nation needs to have protected sex to prevent the spread of HIV we have a right to say — Hey dude, practise what you preach.
That’s what we’ve done. This is not about the child, it’s about Zuma. This is not about Miss Khoza, it’s about Zuma. This is not about morals, it’s about sexual safety.
Stop pussyfooting around the real issues and double-speaking your way out of responsibility Mr Zuma.
And as for the rest of the members of the spineless ANCYL, if you can remove your heads from JM’s bum long enough, it’s time to look around and wonder if it might be time to find a new party to become a member of.
Frick!
Another way of looking at this (and it is more important for this country than discussions about morals) is that it is not about sexual safety. That really is a ‘private’ matter – though not, I agree, for the President of South Africa.
What matters here is ordinary people’s right to hold what opinion they like and say what they like on the subject. They are absolutely entitled to say they like, or do not like, about their President’s behaviour.
Who on earth wants to deny something so obvious except Authority?
Well said, Jennifer – you really summed it up.
Hang on my tax is still keeping this crap up …
http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/search.asp?search=moral+regeneration&Action=GO
“No taxation without representation.” OK that is not the context, but my question is am I expected to help pay the school fees, and medical aid bills for someone elses sexual prowes? (I struggle to pay my own children’s expenses.)
I make the assumption that I contribute towards the president’s life style. On that assumption I believe I have a right to know what they are doing with my (and the rest of the tax payers) hard earned monies.
I do not contribute towards Tiger Woods life style, so he can do whatever ‘blows his hair back’. (And I wish him a speedy reconciliation, and return to sport.) However, I suspect that I am paying for the president and his growing clan.
So surely I have a right to know.
Now you’ve done it Jennifer! Siphiwo, Kitty Kat and Dave Harris are going to come after you with their machine guns blazing. They are going to call you an unreconstructed racist who longs for the days of apartheid. You are going to be called an untransformed white bigot who should emigrate to Australia. Just wait for it!
Well said Jennifer.
Why do South Africans buy thsi crap about “its my culture so its alright” and “don’t say anything, he’s the president”? What did the Americans do when it emerged that Clinton and Lewinsky had been doing their thing? They bitched, they squealed, and Clinton almost lost his job. What is wrong with South Africans that so many of us buy the crap that the president and the ANC puch our way?
On the bright side, the blogs go on and on and on. There are more and more each day, and the numbers of comments on some of them are HUUGGEEE!
Cool! Really cool.
Maybe, just maybe, Zuma will resign out of shame and embarrassment. Maybe SA will move away from the darkness of the ANC and towards proper democracy, not that pale shadow that the ANC pretend is democracy. What are the odds?
It might be time to reconsider having a figurehead State President who is not an active politician, who is elected by popular vote rather than appointed by a political party, who performs ceremonial duties such as opening Parliament, who grants pardons in the best interests of justice and the country rather than personal or party-political gain, and who serves as a check on government by exercising a veto where necessary to uphold the Constitution. Then the dignity which should be afforded the office of the State President will not be tarnished by the mud-slinging of political infighting. Will JZ retain his office after his latest “Do as I say and not as I do” escapade? It is unlikely Luthuli House will recall him for that, and his supporters could well manipulate future party conferences to keep him in power. He might find it more difficult to survive a popular vote in a national election, though, and the country would then be spared the embarrassment of being headed by someone with no concept of morals, dignity and integrity.
Part 1 – Thought you all might be interested in a Christian ladies reply to the Zuma saga, it is devoid of indignant moralising:
Our President has inspired divided opinions from the time he was asked to step down as Deputy President by Thabo Mbeki. Since that time people have had strong feelings about him – love him or hate him. When it was clear that he would be our next President he again inspired strong opinions. We’re all familiar with the controversies surrounding him. He has fought long and hard to get to where he is today.
The latest revelation of his 20th child has set tongues wagging. And again there are those who condemn and those who defend his personal choice.
We see and know only what the media tell us and what we attempt to glean on our own. But Father You know him intimately. You know his deepest thoughts, the dark recesses of his heart, his weaknesses and strengths. It’s easy to condemn him but he is your child just as we are.
We could join the fray and condemn him just as others are. Or we could lift him up and cover him in prayer.
Brent
Part 2 – Father, this morning we pray for Jacob Zuma our President and Jacob Zuma the man.
Throughout time you have used men with faults and weaknesses. You reveal Your power through the vessels our world would have thrown away. You do not use the perfect but the willing. We pray for Your will to be done in his life Lord. Surround him with peacemakers, with wise and discerning men and women who seek Your will in his life. Speak to him Father, drawn him close to You. We pray for a transformation in his life, for a deep commitment on his part to serve You. Reveal Yourself to him Father and call him for the purpose You have in mind.
We pray that everywhere he turns he finds You. Surround him with Your love, grace and mercy. We pray for a mighty move of Your spirit in his life. We pray for a miraculous change in his life Father, a change so profound that others will know that it was by Your hand.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
Brent
Isn’t it funny that the ‘president’ can do and say whatever he pleases, but we, the public, who pay for his excesses are not allowed to say anything at all?
Its time the labour laws are changed so that employees can fully do whetever they please and employers have to shut up. Its almost like that already but now is the time to place it into the law bookks. The unions and the employees are best to run the contry, after all employers are only there to pay the salaries.
Zuma is a disgrace to us all – lock up your daughters.
It is a crime in Zimbabwe to say anything against mad Bob. Are we heading the same way?
@ alto
what planet are you on? Shame & embarrassment have never caused any African leader to resign..
Blogs may be cool, but they are only read by the online set, a tiny minority in SA. So they are ineffective.
”SHH..Don’t say anything, he is the President” Look, your article entiled above does not wash at all. Now that our elected President is not going to step down what are you going to do? This is Africa and not Europe. We operate and behave differently from Europeans so please live us alone. If you want to elect your own President then go and do it. Lets meet at the polls and we will beat you to pieces like we have always done.
This question of rediculing our elected President has more racial overtones than I could imagine. If this is the press freedom we gave to you, then we might as well take it back. We are the majoity and the ruling party…in fact we are the Government and we will always follow the democratic mandate of our people. We don’t engage in people’s private lives but instead, fight towards the achivement of a developmental society. So please, can we start to work together and see how we can come up with a good quality education system for our children( the people’s children not the elite), a good quality health system. This are issues we must deliberate on and not the President’s wifes and girlfriends. Please do not be negative about our elected President. He is the man!
Only in Africa.
Mike,
Shouldn’t that be “machine gums blazing”? The blogs and comments will maybe only make the tiniest difference, or none, but what the hell, it’s better than working. If only for 10 minutes.
FYI: “safety” goes out of the window when passion takes over. Just live with it! Ever been there??????
Next subject, please.
Brent…I’m not sure prayer will help now. Especially seeing as JZ’s in cahoots with Paster Ray and things could begin to become manipulated willy nilly. Next thing you know the media houses will have a plague against them.
Jonathan – it certainly looks that way.
Brent,
blind faith… got us this deep into indignant moralising don’t pray for the man…
he sold you HIS moral crap through a church; I guess they all clapped and prayed and yelled hallelujah http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/main.asp?include=former_deputy/sp/2002/sp0512a.htm
praying now… well it didn’t help guide him in the last 8 years; I doubt it will suddenly work now
My opinion is that Zuma’s private life is just that – private. It’s his presidential life that interests me. However as you can see from some comments, I do sometimes wonder quite what he would have to do to lose the support of the blindly ‘loyal at all costs’ supporters. A bit of conditional loyalty would do a lot of good for SA.
Justice does justice to this topic:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/article285413.ece
but being unable to critique HE The Pres… is the legacy of the Saint Madiba and the HRH Prince Thabo years… all we are doing is extending that to the reign of Father JZ…
Is Zuma guilty of having fathered twenty children or do we need a court to have him proven guilty?
This is the kind of nonsense that is being bandied around everyday in South Africa.
Remeber,any wrongdoer is guilty at the MOMENT of his wrongdoing, NOT only after he guilt has been proven in court.
Please……………………..leave Mr Zuma and His personal life and sexual life alone I personally do not support the behavior but please he is the president and is not stepping down.
@Tsepang,
We accept that he is of such low moral character that he would not step down on his own accord, as a true leader would. Therefore he will be pulled down by the weight of his own failures to lead, by none other than his own ANC who he has shamed; and no, we will not stop harrassing him.
If it is his public life and not his private life we are free to criticise, why did the man take time off work last week to set his private life to rights? The deputy president had to stand in for him at a meeting Zuma was due to chair, while Juma ran home to his family!
On the subject of 20 kids: in a country where poverty is so rife, we would benefit from a bit of Chinese influence. Why don’t we give the first child free education and health, the second child the family can pay for and the third costs could be loaded by 10% (and forever upwards till the 20th is loaded by 160%)? What a good idea…
PS: I’m sure that Mo is a Shaik!
Jennifer
Helen Zille is the Boss of her all male cabinet, not a token – that is REAL Gender Equity.
And the reason it is all male is that her most experienced women chose to stay as Shadow Ministers in Parliament, where their experience was most needed. The men got the admin work – the women the tough work (by choice).
That may be the case Lyndall, but representation wasn’t put in place for pure numbers. It is because you need a diversity of opinions based on a diversity of life experiences. The majority male, majority white cabinet is not representative enough I’m afraid.
@Mo (Shaik?)
“This is Africa and not Europe. We operate and behave differently from Europeans so please live us alone. ”
This is a familiar argument that has been perfected by Zanu PF and Mr Robert Mugabe – intersting to see the ANC supporters using it.
The argument is fine IF you aspire to the living standards of the average African country – per capital GDP of under US$1,000 per annum, poor health servies, corrupt and inefficient government, lack of investment etc.
If, however, you aspire to the standard of living prevalent in Western democracies, then you had better understand that a pre-requisite is reasonably good governance.
You cannot have it both ways, I am afraid.
Jennifer,
With the WC DA cabinet, sometimes your hand is dealt from a much smaller pack of cards, as was the case in this instance. Lyndall Beddy is right.
In the ANC they have a multitude of party members to play the gender representation game, yet still they recycle the same old crooks, jailbirds and Travelgate MP’s to national and provincial cabinet positions.
When the ANC president can practice gender equality anywhere near as close to that of Zille’s DA, then you may have reason to criticise.
Jennifer
Rubbish! Don’t talk pious claptrap. Proportionally Helen’s whole team has more senior women. AND remember DA policy is the best PERSON for the job (not ANC tokenism, incompetance and corruption) – you want tokenism like the ANC has?
Have you looked at the female respresentation in Cosatu? The unions have always been male, and their leaders think they have a right to sex with the women as soon as they reach the top – Rae Alexander Simons wrote how she struggled with that attitude in the unions (she founded the trade unions in SA and was a communist and activist – but not allowed to be a member of the ANC because she was white, until that changed in 1985)
And the SABC has 2 dedicated teams always with Zuma to follow him. They are ALL black men, except one white female (2 minorities in one).
Helen’s Provincial Cabinet does NOT set ANY DA policy. That is set by their NEC at NATIONAL level and includes ALL the women.
It was Nelsomn Mandela who banned whites from the ANC when he ran the youth league – originally membership had been non-racial