When a tearful Narend Singh, the KwaZulu-Natal minister for arts, culture and tourism, announced his resignation, he highlighted a politico-moral dilemma.
For the first time in post-apartheid South Africa, an elected government official had quit purely because he had been caught with his pants down. There was no suggestion of abuse of office or coercion of his partner in infidelity, Durban socialite Roseanne Narandas.
His party leader, Inkatha Freedom Party chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, congratulated Singh on his ”selflessness and dedication to his country and party” in stepping down. But it is far from clear whether his removal from office was politically necessary.
Conflicting international trends on the consequences of infidelity by public representatives offer little direction. In countries like France, and in many African countries, the affairs of political leaders are assumed to be their private business.
The Jacob Zuma rape trial is a different case, because of the allegation that force was used and that a protective father-daughter relationship was abused. In addition, Zuma’s admitted failure to use a condom while having sex with an HIV-positive woman has called into question his leadership on HIV/Aids.
IFP general secretary Musa Zondi said the party had no formal position on whether a politician entangled in similar circumstances to Singh needed to vacate his seat. However, he implied that the pressure to quit had essentially come from the public.
Zondi said society’s condemnation of Singh was a case of imputing to politicians a higher morality than society’s own. ”It was Plato who said it is not the function of politics to bring the moral rectitude over the public. You cannot expect that out of politics and politicians,” said Zondi.
In South Africa, too, not all sinners are tarred with the same brush. Former president Nelson Mandela cohabited with Graça Machel before they were married, yet — with the exception of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who criticised him as a bad example to the youth — there was little public censure.
Zondi pointed out that the electorate would still have supported Mandela in an election even if he had not tied the knot. ”At the same time, any political party would like to attract people of high moral standards, people who are not involved in criminal activities.”
While newspapers in some countries splash the lurid details of extramarital affairs across their front pages, elsewhere, the public’s acceptance of politicians’ infidelities makes affairs uninteresting.
In France, the mistress and ”love child” of former president François Mitterrand attended his state funeral, as did his legal wife, without press brouhaha.
Only this month a Thai tradition of keeping mistresses, known as ”mia noi” or ”minor wives”, has been challenged by the ruling party. One politician said that 170 candidates would be unable to run for office if a policy was established against politicians having mistresses.
Popular Brazilian presidents such as Juscelino Kubstichek and Getulio Vargas were known to have had affairs, Claudia Antunes, a Brazilian bureau chief, told the Mail & Guardian. ”I can’t remember a single case in which a revelation of extramarital affairs has put an end to a politician’s career in Brazil.”
In contrast, the American public was incensed when it emerged that then president Bill Clinton had had an affair with his intern.
Reflecting similar moral attitudes, a string of British politicians has resigned because of marital infidelities, including John Major’s national heritage secretary, David Mellor.
Political analyst Nomboniso Gasa said ”there would be very few people running our newspapers, teaching our children at schools or preaching in churches” if everyone caught with their pants down was forced to resign.
Unless a politician had been elected on a higher morality ticket, Gasa said, there was no reason for him or her to lose a job in the event of an affair.
”We need to bridge the public private divide to ensure there is a balance and consistency between what they [public figures] espouse and what they practise. However, the right to privacy, including that of politicians must be protected, especially if nothing is done in that private space that causes harm to others,” she said.