Minister Lulu Xingwana’s comments about Afrikaner men is the latest in a series of political foot-in-mouth moments. Here are some of their more jarring statements. Above: Who: Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana What she said: “Young Afrikaner men are brought up in the Calvinist religion believing that they own a woman, they own a child, they own everything and therefore they can take that life because they own it.” Xingwana was speaking about the arrest of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius for allegedly murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Reaction: The African Christian Democratic Party called on President Jacob Zuma to fire Xingwana. The Freedom Front Plus said it would report the matter to the SA Human Rights Commission. She apologised for the comments. Picture: Dudu Zitha/City Press

Who: Former president FW de Klerk What he said: In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in May 2012, De Klerk denied that blacks in the homelands were disenfranchised. “They were not disenfranchised. They voted. They were not put in homelands. The homelands were historically there,” he said. “If only the developed world would put so much money into Africa, which is struggling with poverty, as we poured into those homelands. How many universities were built? How many schools?” Reaction: His comments caused an uproar on social networking sites, with many saying he didn’t deserve his Nobel Peace Prize.

Who: Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson What she said: Joemat-Pettersson came out guns blazing when DA fisheries spokesperson Pieter van Dalen accused her of bias towards the Sekunjalo Consortium over the aborted awarding of the R800 million marine resource patrol contract in May 2012. Joemat-Pettersson accused van Dalen of “gossip and information peddling” and accused him of “allegedly” shooting at black children in Gugulethu and then “you laughed at them”. Reaction: Van Dalen has denied any involvement in the incident. Joemat-Pettersson refused to address the Cape Town Press Club after finding out that Van Dalen would be sitting in. Picture: Nasief Manie/Foto 24

Who: DA leader Helen Zille What she said: “While E Cape education collapsed, WC built 30 schools – 22 new, 8 replacement mainly 4 E Cape edu refugees. 26 MORE new schools coming,” she tweeted in March 2012. Reaction: The ANC was furious, saying Zille’s comment was “racist” and could not be tolerated. Even DA members took Zille to task over the insensitive tweet. She initially defended her comment but later apologised. “The ANC thought they could take Grabouw back, and to make things worse, I shot us in the foot with that tweet,” she said. Picture: Peter Abrahams

Who: President Jacob Zuma What he said: In a People of the South interview with Dali Tambo in August 2012, Zuma was asked whether he was happy about his daughter Duduzile getting married. Zuma said: “I was happy because I wouldn’t want to stay with daughters who are not getting married. Because that in itself is a problem in society. People today think being single is nice. It’s actually not right. That’s a distortion. You’ve got to have kids. Kids are important to a woman because they give extra training to a woman, to be a mother.” Reaction: Gender right activists and users of social networking sites were fuming, saying Zuma was condemning single, childless women. Picture: Pascal Lauener/Reuters

Who: President Jacob Zuma What he said: In December 2012, Zuma gave a speech at Impendle in KwaZulu-Natal and said that spending money to buy a dog and taking it to the vet and for walks, belonged to “white” culture. He said the African way was rather to focus on family. Zuma also said people who loved dogs more than people had “a lack of humanity”. According to Zuma, there was a generation of people trying to “emulate whiteness” but who would not succeed. “Even if you apply any kind of lotion and straighten your hair, you will never be white.” Reaction: Social networking sites went barking mad over the comments with some people posting pictures of themselves with dogs. Zuma’s spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, said Zuma was trying to “decolonise the African mind”. Picture: GCIS

Who: Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder What he said: Mulder said in Parliament in February 2012 that Africans did not have a legal and historical claim to up to 40% of South Africa’s land because they migrated from northern Africa. “There is sufficient proof that there were no Bantu-speaking people in the western Cape and the northwestern Cape. These parts form 40% of South Africa’s land surface,” he said. His comments were greeted with an angry response from the ANC and much of the country. Reaction: Zuma slammed Mulder, saying he needed a history lesson. The DA said Mulder needed to learn the “real history” of South Africa.

Who: Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga What she said: Motshekga refused to take responsibility for the Limpopo textbook saga. “It (delivering textbooks) is an administrative function and it has nothing to do with me as a minister.” She went on to say that the failure to deliver textbooks was “a problem, not a crisis”. In an interview with City Press in January 2013, Motshekga said: “It was energy-sapping for me, but fortunately I was able to take the attitude which was that I knew I had not done anything wrong. There was nothing I could have done differently. If my best was not enough, tough luck.” Reaction: There were calls for Motshekga to quit or be fired, but President Jacob Zuma said the government would not take hasty action against her. In July 2012, the ANC Youth League and the Congress of SA Students (Cosas) gave her two weeks to resign. She remains basic education minister. Picture: Leon Sadiki/City Press