It is said that John F Kennedy chased women ‘like a man possessed’, of course his most famous mistress was Marilyn Monroe; then there is the player of players Berlesconi and his teenage girl fetish, and not forgetting Clinton and the cigar…

More recently the president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, admitted to the roaring headlines that he does in fact have a love child: four-month-old daughter with Sonono Khoza.

But what makes this sex scandal different to the rest is that Zuma governs a country where more than five million people live with HIV. So what is really bothering me, is that from news headlines to FaceBook statuses the focus is on the fact that he practices polygamy.

A western perspective on what marriage should be, is NOT what we should be bothered about. The focus should be on the fact that a President, who in 2006 was acquitted for rape after admitting that he had made a mistake by having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive, had unprotected sex AGAIN.

Case in point one (a facebook status from yesterday): ‘XXXX wonders why her President can't keep it in his pants. He has 3 wives! (4th on the way?) Does that not negate the need for extra-marital sex?’

Case in point two (from the first paragraph of a reputable news website): ‘South African President Jacob Zuma, who has three wives, has admitted fathering a child with the daughter of a football executive after days of speculation.’

A western perspective on what marriage ought to be, is NOT what we should be bothered about. The focus should be on the fact that a President, who in 2006 was acquitted for rape after admitting that he had made a mistake by having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive, had unprotected sex AGAIN.

In a country where Zuma is respected and treated as a role model by many citizens, a country still ridden with a lack of education and discrimination on HIV/AIDs, what matters, in my opinion, is that he needs to practise safe sex and faithfulness to his  partners – whether he has three wives or ten.

As a president of  any country, you become a symbol of  moral and good practice. So when you’re acting badly in the bedroom or boardroom you’ve taken on the responsibility to be called on it. That should be the focus of this sex scandal. End  of.