Should people care about the romantic interludes of their political leaders? Is who my president sleeps with any of my concern? Should it be?

I didn’t care about the Clinton scandal. I don’t care about any governor, senator, attorney general or even professional athlete scandal. Ok, maybe I cared a little about the Tiger Woods “issue”. But, for the most part, South Africa is no different. I don’t care who or what their president is doing.

Here’s the short version of it: Zuma is a polygamist. He has three wives. This was fine for a while. Until now. Now,he has a 4-month-old daughter with a woman who isn’t his wife. Now it’s a problem.

The political parties, AIDS activists, women’s rights groups and the citizens are abuzz with disgust. They all claim that he is setting a bad example for the government and is obstructing the message of the government: use condoms and have only one sexual partner.

By not voicing concerns about his lifestyle choice previously, both these groups and the citizens were at least being complacent, or at worst condoning, the violation of the one sexual partner rule.Now, however, with the admission that he has fathered a child out of wedlock,he has caused an international scandal.

The South African government is resolute in its position that Zuma’s president has not violated any governmental policies. In fact, polygamy is allowed in South Africa. It is allowed in his culture, the Zulu people. 

So, something smells fishy. To little old me, it seems that people aren’t focused on who Zuma invites into his bed but instead would rather that he stays far away from the presidential bed. In fact, most people don’t want him as a president any longer. This is just the ticket to get him out. As with most politicians, if the public gets wind of some sort of kinky sexual sin, it will use that as a pretext to call for the politician’s ouster or resignation. Zuma’s situation is no different.

The fact remains that Zuma isn’t denying the child. In fact, he is paying damages to the baby’s mother and is apart of the child’s life.

Zuma himself has defended himself by saying that "it is un-African to discuss private matters publicly. It makes me question what purpose this serves except to degrade someone.” Words of wisdom. It is not only un-African, but inappropriate and all sort of political sexually-informed slandering should stop.