Apology accepted, Mr president
by Mbulelo Dyasi, former Aids ambassador
2010-02-16 14:30
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma, your apology to the nation last week is
accepted. The apology confirmed to some of us that you are a genuine
president.
First and foremost, I would like to thank you for standing up for
your children and their mothers.
Though, it worries me and many South Africans,
I suppose, that your marriages are somehow linked to HIV/Aids and other
communicable diseases.
I have tried to understand the link between your
marriages and HIV/Aids and have so far failed to understand all this.
President Zuma, we all know now that you are the father to Sonono
Khoza’s daughter and that a damage has been paid, as our African customs and
traditions allows.
Personally, I appreciate the fact that you are showing respect and
commitment to both women and children.
The culture of paying damages (inhlawulo – an African way of
showing guilt, remorse and responsibility) in our communities is no longer
respected and recognised as life has since taken a distorted route whereby girls
and women get pregnant through rape.
Inhlawulo has totally lost its warm and honest meaning.
In times we
are living in, families of a pregnant girl would fight among themselves over an
inhlawulo; this going to support the statement that the “damage” has become some
sort of a financial relief for the family, and in the process the family loose
sight of the important factor of an “illegitimate child”.
My wish is for all cultured men to not follow in the president’s
footsteps by impregnating women with the knowledge that they won’t marry the
woman, but instead learn the lesson of admitting guilt and responsibility.
On the issue of polygamy and HIV/Aids, the South African National
Aids Council would be in a better position to commission a study and look into
whether there is truth that polygamy does spread HIV.
In conclusion Mr President, many South Africans know and understand
that you impregnated Sonono before you were sworn in as the first citizen.
With
this in mind, it says that you did nothing to embarrass your office as a sitting
president.
But again, make sure that you don’t do anything that would contradict
the above (impregnating out of wedlock) while you are still a sitting president
of the Republic, otherwise I will be the first to call for your removal.