Zuma: A taint on our highest office

Phylicia Oppelt: "Shame of the Nation" a daily newspaper screams across its front page while another reads: "Baby, you'll pay".

These were the immediate reactions to the Sunday Times front page story that President Jacob Zuma had fathered his 20th child.

But is it a shame? Should we, as citizens of this country, feel any embarrassment that our president appears to spend more time proving his virility than doing the business of government?

The story has garnered immense reaction and debate. Some say it's okay; he's a man. Others say that this is the beginning of the end, the slippery slope into the moral decay of our country. Meanwhile others laugh, asking where the 67-year-old finds the time and energy to bed all these women.

If this was anyone but the president of the Republic of South Africa, I would have just shrugged my shoulders and written him off as a dirty old man who has more sperm than brain cells.

But since he is the president of a country described as the economic powerhouse of the African continent, far be it for me to label him in such an undignified manner - I must have respect for his office.

And I must therefore ask whether fathering his umpteenth child has any direct implications for the office of the president and the regard in which we as a citizenry hold President Zuma.

It certainly makes me ask what lessons he has learnt from the disgrace of testifying in 2006 that he had unprotected sex with a woman who was HIV-positive and that he had thought a shower might lessen the chances of contracting the disease.

Similarly, what lessons did the president learn while he was deputy president under Thabo Mbeki and was appointed as the government's representative on the Moral Regeneration Movement in 2003?

Does he remember the launch of the movement on September 19 2003 in Bhisho, when he said: "Every South African must be a moral regeneration agent".

So what happened to Zuma's role as moral regeneration agent?

Does our president think about the message he sends out to young people across this country about unprotected sex?

Or is he so filled with a sense of invincibility that he has no cause to fear what the rest of us mortals do - unwanted pregnancies, sexual diseases and HIV/Aids?

As a woman and a South African I am outraged.

To know that my daughters, nephews and nieces are growing up during the presidency of a man who behaves in this manner, does not sit well with me.

What is his message to them? Take whoever you want, have sex however you want and behave in any manner you want because there are no consequences to immoral and irresponsible behaviour.

What respect must my children have for the office of the president when the president does not care what we think of him?

He might stand on the world stages, speak to leaders of powerful countries, but here, at home, he is a shameful example of a man and a shameful example of "a moral regeneration agent".

When Jacob Zuma is merely a man, when he stands in front of his mirror away from the pomp and ceremony, what does he see? Perhaps an old, vain man who wants everything - from the respect of the people whom he leads to the women who are swayed by the power he represents.

That, in itself, is disgraceful enough. But when he does all this while having ownership of the most powerful seat in government? Surely then the reputation of that office becomes tainted.

The constant arguments of allowing for cultural traditions and habits must be balanced with what is in the best interests of our country.

And I am afraid that I do not believe that our president is acting in a manner befitting the most powerful office in the land.

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