Sam’s View

Jacob Zuma married his fourth (yes, you heard correctly) wife this weekend. The following is a photograph (and what a doozie it is!) that, I am embarrassed to admit, graced the pages of the Herald Sun in Australia yesterday:

How. Very. Unattractive. Besides the sheer hilarity (I am loving the designer sneakers – they go very well with the traditional Zulu garb), this image makes my skin crawl – primarily because I think he has bigger breasts than I do. Just to clarify…this is not about me slagging a traditional Zulu marriage ceremony. My association with traditional African heritage is a part of what makes me a South African – so I would never make light of that. I don’t, however, regard the sneakers as traditional in anyway, so they are fair game in my opinion!

I have spoken at pains about what I think of Zuma, but again, he has prompted me to devote some more time to elaborate on my views. The fact that he has now been tipped as the next South African president got me thinking that I should blog about why I think he should DEFINITELY NOT be. I then got this comment on my previous Zuma post (my response follows Sanele’s 10 cents worth) which gave me some more encouragement to blog:

It was, however, the final straw when, whilst waiting to speak to my boss yesterday, I picked up the Herald Sun and was confronted with the above delightful gem of a photograph and the unbelievable news of him having a fourth wife.

This whole “Zuma to be president” affair is wrong on so very many different levels, that I thought I would list them:

Fraud, bribery and corruption

Mr Zuma was South Africa’s deputy president for six years before his sacking in 2005 by Mr Mbeki after he was implicated in a bribery trial that saw his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, convicted on fraud and corruption charges. He was also charged with bribery but the case was thrown out on a technicality. However, a High Court ruling last month cleared the way for evidence to be used against him in a possible future prosecution on corruption charges in connection with a multi-million-dollar arms deal.

When is fraud ever OK? When does it ever result in one maintaining a position of leadership? Mbeki fired him (and rightly so) and now he is coming back for more and nobody is in a position to put their foot down. He is playing dumb (which I understand is second-nature for him) about it all, but he is a crook and a tax evader, in my opinion. End of story. Now the fact that he may be buddies with crooks high up in the judicial system (similar to those who found him “innocent” of rape, for example) may result in him, once again, getting let off on a technicality. Just remember, you heard it here first: I think he is a crook, but they won’t find him guilty and they certainly won’t lock him away. Which sucks, but if everyone is in cahoots what can be done?

Rape

According to the Herald Sun, “Mr Zuma, a Zulu, was acquitted of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman last year. During the trial he told the court the sex was consensual.”

Ah the old “she really wanted it” line. Yawn.

Because I find it too boring to get into again, you can read more about this stupid trial, his sheer incompetence and shockingly unbelievable acquittal on my blog post devoted to the topic or at the “Jacob-Zuma -you’re-an-idiot-but-we-really-don’t-know-better-so-we-still-love-you” website.

Polygamy

Zulu tradition allows men to have more than one wife, but the practice is limited, because it is costly and against the Western norms that are increasingly pervading South African society. No legislative moves have been made, however, to abolish the practice, considered part of South Africa’s cultural diversity.

Now apparently one of his wives committed suicide, which is really unfortunate. He then divorced another. But hey, who is (and can) keep track of who he is doing the deed with at any given time?! I am not even sure he can. The point is that he, like many Zulu’s, condones polygamy. South Africa’s AIDS crisis is out of control and here he is carrying on as if it doesn’t exist and doing exactly what exacerbates the problem! The culture of polygamy is why South Africa is in the state that it is in (why is it that Kwazulu-Natal has the highest rate of infection?) – here we have someone in the public eye whom a great number of (unfortunately) very rural, uneducated people really look up to and he is pulling stunts like this. The mind boggles…

Gender Politics

Besides polygamy undermining gender equality, he seems to have an issue with gays as well:

He then incurred the wrath of Aids activists earlier this year when he told a heritage day rally: “When I was growing up an ungqingili (gay) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out.”

Great nation-building stuff considering a bill has just been passed allowing same-sex marriages in the country. He just can’t seem to keep his mouth shut. Again, he says this to “his people” and they just lap it up. It is known that he is hardly the sharpest tool in the shed, but stating things like that makes South Africa look like an uneducated shambles in the eyes of the rest of the world.

His Sneakers

Did I mention I found them funny?

In closing…

I haven’t spoken to that many South Africans about their feelings regarding Zuma and how they see their future under his potential leadership. I was half expecting people to pack their bags like so many did in 1993, but not so. Perhaps it isn’t such an issue after all, but it certainly worries me a great deal. I thank my lucky stars that I am not living there anymore, but unfortunately a large number of people who are really special to me, still are. I would really like to know what your feelings are about this. Please no racist remarks – I moderate them and they will not be posted.

Source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6, source 7, source 8, source 9.