An opinion poll with no serious claim to scientific accuracy has identified Jacob Zuma as the sexiest politician in South Africa.
Fair enough, but what on earth were their 2 000 respondents thinking when they put Mosiuoa Lekota and Thabo Mbeki next as second and third?
Perhaps they were just a couple of the only other politicians that people who go to sex exhibitions had heard of.
The poll was circulated on Tuesday to publicise Sexpo, which has taken space at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town until Friday.
The respondents had obviously also heard of Helen Zille, whose glossy features beam from almost every lamp post in the city. She gets the nod as fourth most sexy politician, which the organisers blame on her “recent cosmetic upgrades”.
Trevor Manuel get fifth place — because, the pollsters say, he has one of the naughtiest smiles in politics. Good Lord, does he?
The Sexpo publicists also publish a least sexy list.
Julius Malema heads that one, with Ryan Coetzee, the Democratic Alliance chief executive, and Tony Yengeni following. Patricia de Lille, despite her Timotei-style hairdo on the posters, comes fourth, and then Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Internationally Barack Obama tops the list of sexy politicians — fairly obviously they’ve heard of him. But then comes Bono at number two. Bono? What kind of politician is he?
Bill Clinton is understandable at three, and Jacques Chirac, if only the organisers could spell his name, drives Tony Blair into fifth position. Three of yesterday’s men all together there.
If you want a French politician, what would be wrong with Ségolène Royal? Or possibly, the man who beat her for the job of president, Nicolas Sarkozy? — I-Net Bridge