Your reputation is just plain dirty, Mr Zuma
When Jacob Zuma announced that he was suing the media for alleged defamation of character and loss of reputation, my jaw didn’t drop in surprise. What else should one expect from an ex-deputy president fallen from grace, but a pathetically desperate attempt to salvage some face?
However, I’m not interested in exploring whether or not Zuma will win this case (although winning the lottery every week seems more likely) and neither should he be at the moment. A more pertinent question has been asked of him:
“Would that be your reputation as a disgraced, chauvinistic demagogue who can’t control his sexual urges and who thinks a shower prevents Aids?”
This is the question Jonathan Shapiro, also known as Zapiro, asked a rather scary caricature of Jacob Zuma, drawn in the wake of Zuma’s R15-million suit against the famous cartoonist.
Jacob Zuma, former chairman of the South African National Aids Council (Sanac) has been under fire from all sides for his statement about taking a shower after having sex with an HIV-positive woman. It was chiefly this rather confusing statement that made Zuma the brunt of every joke the media, particularly cartoonists, could come up with.
Now the former deputy president is suing the media for making him look bad!
During his rape trial, Zuma said he had taken a shower after sleeping with an HIV-positive woman to minimise the risk of getting infected. This theory elicited anger from differing sides and the media had a field day. But the reporting was neither malicious nor defamatory; the position Zuma had put himself in was ripe for reporting that questioned his suitability as the next president of South Africa.
“All people are at risk of contracting HIV if they engage in unprotected sex.
The department of health repeated this warning on Thursday, a day after former deputy president Jacob Zuma said taking a shower after having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman lessened the risk of contracting the virus”, The Star and IOL reported.
In another article published on ipsnews.net, “The Shower That Washed Anti-AIDS Efforts Down the Drain”, by Moyiga Nduru, the TAC was quoted as saying;
“It is nonsense. There is no evidence to support it,” said Nathan Geffen of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a non-governmental organisation based in the coastal city of Cape Town that lobbies for improved access to anti-retroviral drugs.
Similar responses resonated throughout the country and when Zuma was acquitted he humbly apologised for having sex with an HIV-positive woman and for not using a condom. The apology was generally well received but I’m in agreement with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, who said:
“Zuma made no apology for his infidelity and the harm caused to his family through his behaviour. The apology he made was for not using a condom, which reveals his concern for political correctness.”
Not only did Zuma not apologise to his family, he didn’t accept responsibility for making a rash, untrue statement that undermined one the country’s efforts to educate people about HIV/AIDS.
Now he is lashing out against people like Shapiro who were brave enough to say, “You’re being ridiculous and you’re a fool!”
Shapiro is right: Zuma did not have a squeaky clean reputation to begin with. And what little he was holding on to, he diminished himself by making the shower statement.
If Zuma wants to preserve his “reputation as a disgraced, chauvinistic demagogue who can’t control his sexual urges and who thinks a shower prevents Aids,” then he should go right ahead and sue the media. - Akhona Cira