January 1998: News of the American president’s extramarital affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, had just made headlines. The popular and likeable Clinton was just about to give his State of the Union speech, and issued a forceful denial to stave off what would become one of the biggest scandals to hit American politics.
“Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night,” he told the press, with his wife Hillary Clintion besides him. “But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
That last phrase would become one of his best known soundbites.
January 2010: South African President Jacob Zuma has earned the acceptance of a nation after a tumultuous road to the presidency. His approval ratings are at an all-time high and despite taking a third wife in a controversial demonstration of polygamy; his substantial fanbase defends him passionately.
Then headlines are made about a “love child” days before an important State of the Nation address.
The similarities are remarkable. Unlike Clinton, however, Zuma admitted to paternity almost immediately, and a few weeks later issued a grudging apology after outcry from the public and a stony silence from his supporters refused to go away.
There was none of Clinton’s bluster and cynical denialism.
But, then again, Zuma will have to face none of the consequences laid out before Clinton for betraying an agreed-upon moral standard.
What followed for Clinton was an excruciating process of lawsuits, perjury charges, an attempt to impeach, or remove him from office, and a 21-day trial in the Senate which lead to his eventual acquittal.
Zuma’s contravention of a certain public and cultural standard by having an extramarital affair is unlikely to earn him more than a slap on the wrist by his party and alliance.
In the double standards that attend reporting on our very African president, the international media seems to forget that dodgy behaviour on the part of men in power is hardly an exclusively African trait. Sex scandals are ubiquitous as they are deliciously satisfying media fodder.
The fact of human nature is that we can all be corrupted. To assume otherwise is a political danger that America’s founding fathers were well aware of. Hence the multiple measures put in place in their political system to keep powerful men in check, and to hold their leaders accountable at every level.
But theory is often trampled upon in practice — in the US and in South Africa, which is modelled on the same democratic principles.
Here especially, the absolutely critical democratic tenets of checks and balances and separation of powers are being eroded in a political world caught up in the cult of the personality. On an even more sinister note, independent state institutions that are meant to hold our leaders accountable are increasingly headed up by party loyalists and yes men, while our judiciary has seen several attacks on its independence.
Fact is, while the now toothless Cope bleats about Zuma doing the right thing and stepping down after this scandal, it’s never going to happen.
Cope deputy President Mbhazima Shilowa is harking back to a noble and extinct world where people were far more demanding of their leaders, and leaders likewise aware of their responsibilities: A world where the acknowledgement of shame leads to the redeeming honour of falling on one’s sword.
But there will be no falling on swords here or elsewhere for a while yet. Zuma’s apology was as cynical a move as Clinton’s denial, given the respective political systems facing the two.
It is most expedient of Zuma to ‘fess up immediately to best avoid the fall-out from the revelation so close to his State of the Nation address — and the international public lens courtesy of the approaching Soccer World Cup.
It seems Clinton played his cards right, too. The Lewinsky scandal, while remaining one of his lasting legacies, did little to injure his standing with the electorate, despite the dishonesty and lack of integrity he displayed in the handling of the affair and other allegations of corrupt activity.
Clinton left office with an approval rating at 66%, the highest end-of-office rating of any president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work.
A similar ending for Zuma? It depends on how much we’ll let him get away with — and how much we’ll hold to account.
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