Sexual pressure from male political colleagues is a daily reality, woman MPs complained this week. They also said that ”traditional” sexual attitudes among certain male politicians added to the pressures.
The abuse of political position for sex is among the many taboo issues thrown up by the rape allegations against Jacob Zuma.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to eight woman MPs on condition of anonymity. Seven said that sexual pressure from male colleagues was a common occurrence.
”Sexual pressure happens a lot in the public sector,” said one woman. Often it is a ‘I give you this, I pay you that’ kind of relationship. I’ve seen it.”
Another said: ”Generally women experience [sexual pressure] from men, even in Parliament.”
”Personally I haven’t had the problem, but I know it is an ongoing thing,” said another MP.
The image of philandering male politicians in South Africa is not new. In 2000, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela ignited controversy by writing a letter to Zuma, in his former capacity as deputy president, accusing President Thabo Mbeki of serial infidelity with female colleagues.
But this was in the context of conflict between Mbeki and African National Congress ”populists”, and Madikizela-Mandela’s battle for political survival after being implicated in financial scandals.
Female politicians concede that some women use sex to advance their careers. ”Even us, as women, we’re not clean. Some women promote it because there is something in it for them. They have ambitions and compromise to get there.”
Lisa Vetten, head of the gender programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said the perception that women use sex to fast-track their careers is used by men to justify sexual exploitation. ”We’re living in a time when women are rewarded far more for their sexuality than for their intellect,” she said.
Another woman MP agreed. She said she experienced sexual harassment during the first sitting of Parliament in 1994, but that her greatest concern was that women were still not taken seriously.
”When you talk, you’re not fully recognised, especially when the chairperson [of a parliamentary committee] is a man.”
One of the MPs argued that the sexual pressures were exacerbated by traditional attitudes and practices, including polygamy. ”We are still living in a patriarchal society where polygamy is widely accepted as normal,” she remarked.
Zuma is South Africa’s most prominent polygamist. At one time, he was married to three wives: Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Kate Zuma and MaKhumalo Zuma, with four children by Dlamini-Zuma and five by Kate Zuma.
His plan to take a fourth wife, Sebentile Dlamini of the Swazi royal house, appears to have been scuttled by the cost involved.
Dlamini’s parents apparently demanded lobola of 100 cows, at about R3 000 per cow. The bride-price negotiations coincided with the trial of main bankroller Schabir Shaik on fraud and corruption charges earlier this year.
Although the woman at the centre of the Zuma rape controversy is not his wife, Vetten believes polygamy creates a mindset that men are ”entitled to multiple female partners”. ”Tradition can be used in a self-serving way,” she said.
Zuma’s sexual habits form an interesting contrast with his strident support of virginity testing — he has described women’s virginity as ”their family’s treasure” — and his former lead role, as deputy president, in South Africa’s HIV/Aids education campaign. He also headed the moral regeneration campaign, but has insisted that has nothing to do with sex.