The Times Editorial: Ideally, what happens in private between two consenting adults should be nobody else's business.

But if one of the individuals involved happens to be a married President of a country with the highest rate of HIV infection in the world, the public has every right to intrude.

The ANC yesterday stopped short of confirming that President Jacob Zuma has indeed fathered a child with the 39-year-old daughter of local football strongman Irvin Khoza. Refusing to comment on the Sunday Times story yesterday, the ruling party said since Inhlawulo - the customary "damages" that a father pays when a child is born out of wedlock - has been paid, the privacy of the two families will have to be respected.

The point that the ruling party misses, however, is that this is not about whether the President has a right to privacy or not.

It is that his personal conduct - having multiple sexual partners and not being religious in using condoms - undermines the anti-HIV/Aids campaigns of the very government he leads.

Zuma - who has three current wives, a fiancée and 20 children - is supposed to be leading the country's offensive against the spread of HIV/Aids from the front. He promised to do as much in his Aids Day message last December and was hailed for doing so.

But his personal behaviour and attitude suggest that he has not internalised his own message.

It also calls into question the sincerity of his May 2006 apology - after being acquitted on a charge of rape - for having unprotected sex with a person who was not his wife.

"I should have known better and I should have acted with greater caution and responsibility," Zuma said at the time. Clearly, these were just meaningless words to him.