Zuma's affair 'undermines safe sex campaign'A

Zuma's affair 'undermines safe sex campaign'

South African President Jacob Zuma is not having a good week.

After days of media speculation that he had fathered a child out of wedlock, Mr Zuma was forced to admit he was having an affair.

Mr Zuma's private life was a hot topic in South Africa long before he became president. As a Zulu traditionalist, he practises polygamy and currently has three wives and 19 children.

But when news broke earlier this week that the 67-year-old was having an affair with a woman almost three decades his junior and that they had had a baby together, the media went into overdrive.

Unsurprisingly, South Africa's opposition parties have led the criticism of the President's behaviour

"His private life is his private life but he must also consider the impact of his private life on the messages that his government is sending out, especially to deal with the pandemic of HIV and AIDS," said Patricia de Lille of the Independent Democrats.

More than 5 million South Africans have the AIDS virus and Reverend Kenneth Meshoe says the President's sexual conduct is undermining the government's safe sex campaign.

"The President must practice what he preaches," he said.

"If you tell the nation to use condoms, have safer sex, you also must do it."

The governing party, the African National Congress, has leapt to its leader's defence, claiming the media had no right to question or even publicise details of Mr Zuma's private life.

"You must be very ashamed of yourself to ask about that, especially when it is about an elderly person," said the head of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema.

"We are Africans and sitting here all of us, Zuma is our father. So we are not qualified to talk about that."

Four days after the scandal broke, Mr Zuma finally issued a statement admitting it was an affair that resulted in the birth of his 20th child.

But he then launched a scathing attack on the media for being disrespectful and mischievous.

However Professor Tinyiko Maluleke from the South African Council of Churches says the public needs to discuss the matter.

"Whether the President had a love child or not, whether the President was polygamist or not, this would be an important issue," Professor Maluleke said.

"This particular story around the President simply adds fuel to the discussion ... of all the factors that contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS, and I think that people will not be stopped from talking about that."

Mr Zuma has taken leave, no doubt hoping the scandal will blow over.