Zuma’s privacy - an oxymoron?

January 16th, 2009

Is ANC president Jacob Zuma’s polygamy a private matter? The ANC said it was this week, when questioned about his latest marriage plans. But I am not so sure.

A Cape Town paper ran a piece about it and most commentators disagreed with my view that he forfeited a great deal of privacy when he chooses to run for president. So let me tease the argument out a bit.

First, let me say that I think it is a good thing that there is general respect for the private lives of our politicians and we do not have the kind of free-for-all you see in places like the US. Helen Suzman, for example, enjoyed the discretion of many journalists who knew that her private life was more interesting than it seemed, for decades. I think the media has to justify intrusion, and that is a good thing.

I believe intrusion is justified when it reflects on the values, conduct or integrity of a public figure. For example, if it shows hypocrisy, such as revealing that a homophobe has had homosexual relationships, then it is fair game. If it shows a gender equality campaigner to have a dubious attitude to the other sex, then that is of public interest. But these are easy cases.

More complex is when it is about values. Zuma has made personal choices which do speak to his values and attitudes. Polygamy is controversial in a society committed to gender equality. So is having 17 or 18 children (nobody seems quite sure how many there are, if you ready Jeremy Gordin’s biography), particularly when the evidence suggests that you may have been compromised (to put it politely) by an occasional shortage of the funds needed to maintain such a lifestyle.

I think you have to expect discussion and debate on these matters. If you set yourself up as a potential role model, then expect an examination of the model. Do we want to be telling young people that it is a good thing to have dozens of children? Or are there cautionary remarks one might want to offer? These things do need, at the least, to be debated.

Which leads us to the fact that the current national president, Kgalema Motlanthe, is famously discreet about his wife. She is, to all intents and purposes, invisible. We do not, it seems, have a first lady, or at least not one whose name and face we know. I think this is fine, if it is the way he wants it. It would only be of public interest if something emerged which reflected on his integrity, and nobody has suggested that at all.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Media regulation