Why Gigaba’s private(s) life is of such pub(l)ic interest

It was at the height of apartheid. The ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress – among banned political organisations that fought segregation policies and laws – had their leaders such as Oliver Tambo based in exile and Nelson Mandela serving a life sentence on Robben Island.

Dr Allan Boesak, a militant and fiery anti-apartheid cleric, who became president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and patron of the nonracial United Democratic Front – the only voice of the oppressed in the country – became the Martin Luther King Jr of South Africa.

Loved and followed by multitudes wherever he spoke in the townships of Korsten, Zwide, Uitenhage, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu, Boesak – born in Kakamas in the Western Cape – became a thorn in the flesh of the National Party-led government of PW Botha.

He is remembered for mounting effective campaigns against the Tricameral Parliament, Koornhof Bills and the Bantustans system.

Whether you were in New York, Berlin or London, Boesak became the face of the anti-apartheid movement that strengthened the campaign for the isolation of South Africa through economic, cultural and sporting sanctions – rendering the country a pariah state that had few friends to do business with.

A family man with four children, Boesak, who was married to Dorothy – committed a moral and politically costly mistake in 1985 by having an affair with South African Council of Churches staffer Di Scott. This gave his political foes – the security police – ammunition to bug a room where the two slept, later sending the recording to a Johannesburg newspaper, which exposed the affair.

Too big was the story to be ignored.

Boesak in 1990 got involved in another affair: with Elna Botha, at the time married to Colin Fluxman – a well-known television news anchor.

The two later got married. But so damaging was Boesak’s experience that his local church had to expel him, something that weakened his standing as a leader.

His humiliation was not to become the only one to affect the credibility of a political leader (remember the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1995?).

Now South Africa’s social media are still awash with news of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba – also a married man with a high profile – who has made it his business to grab headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The latest video of Gigaba apparently pleasuring himself – and later claiming he was being besmirched by elements within the intelligence community – is baffling.

Gigaba, whose scandals are synonymous with love affairs, should know that even what he does in his private life is a matter of public interest.

The Press Council even says on the matter of public interest: “The media shall be entitled to comment upon or criticise any actions or events of public interest.”

Media expert Bob Egginton says public interest plays an important role in a functioning society and “journalism plays a central role, in that it gives people the information they need to take part in a democratic process”.

While the Gigabas may cry foul when cornered with the truth, they need to learn to get out of the kitchen if they can’t take the heat.

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