The Three (or is it Five?) Wives of Jacob Zuma

South African President Jacob Zuma, currently on a three-day state visit to Britain, has come in for a rough time in the British press, which has castigated him for his polygamous habits.  Stephen Robinson, writing in The Daily Mail, calls him a “sex-obsessed bigot with four wives and 35 children” and wonders why Britain is “fawning over this “vile buffoon.”

Mr. Zuma has lashed back, saying, “When the British came to our country they said everything we did was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way. Bear in mind that I’m a freedom fighter and I fought to free myself, also for my culture to be respected. I don’t know why they are continuing thinking that their culture is more superior than others, those who might have said so. I am very clear on these issues, I’ve not looked down upon any culture of anyone, and no one has been given an authority to judge others. The British have done that before, as they colonised us, and they continue to do this, and it’s an unfortunate thing.” There was concern that President Zuma’s statements might cast a pall over the state dinner at Buckingham Palace, but in the event photos showed him sharing several lighthearted moments with the Queen as they dined on noisettes of lamb narbonnaise.

Never mind whether the tallies are correct – officially Mr. Zuma has three current wives and has fathered only 20 children, the latest in a casual fling with the daughter of a friend – the President has a Tiger Woods-style problem on his hands. His party, the African National Congress, is embarrassed by the President’s rampant libido, fearing it both confirms European stereotypes and serves as a bad example to a population in which 30 percent of the population is HIV-positive. Add to that Mr. Zuma’s 2008 trial on rape charges (he was acquitted) and an arduous investigation of his role in a corrupt arms deal (charges were dropped), and one can sympathize with his handlers and spin doctors who must wish he were, somehow, a little less flamboyant. To his credit, President Zuma has not held any tear-stained press conferences like Tiger Woods or Mark Sanford or Eliot Spitzer, and has strongly – defiantly even – defended his prerogatives as a Zulu “big man,” a role he clearly enjoys, as the accompanying photo shows.

I have written previously on this blog about President Zuma. I was never a fan of his and feared the worst when it became clear he was favored to win the Presidency. But he has acquitted himself reasonably well in what may be the hardest job on the planet, sticking to the sensible economic policies of his predecessors while fending off increasingly vicious attacks from his core base of support in the Communist Party and the labor union movement.  I’m not sure I agree with Mr. Zuma’s plea for Western countries to lift travel and economic sanctions on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his close associates, but he has done no more than echo Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, quoted in yesterday’s New Zimbabwe newspaper  as saying the sanctions are undermining the ability of the national unity government to resolve the country’s political and economic crisis.

For some reason I don’t quite understand, most people expect top politicians and athletes to be role models of some kind. In reality, holding up Lance Armstrong or Serena Williams as role models is a cruel joke, since these are literally one-in-a-billion specimens whose achievements no one can duplicate. And what sane person would want his children to grow up with the insanely ruthless ambition and drive it takes to succeed in politics?

It would be a better world, and we would be spared many cringe-inducing public confessions and displays of remorse, if we could just let Jacob Zuma and other politicians be themselves and judged them on the success or failure of their policies and the degree to which they protect the public interest, rather than on their sexual behavior.