Radebe’s alleged request for raunchy pictures is embarrassing

Shock revelations this weekend that Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe bombarded a female presidential photographer with requests for raunchy pictures, is embarrassing and unseemly at best.

Siyasanga Mbambani, the curvacious Union Building staffer embroiled in the upsetting report, is currently on suspension on charges related to insubordination, but blew the whistle on the minister by releasing what purports to a series of explicit text messages between Radebe and herself.

We are forced to ask the question whether this is an elaborate set-up or not – especially when Mbambani eventually admitted that she had indeed sent off nude pictures of herself.

Either way, it is an acutely uncomfortable situation facing the 64-year-old minister. It could also have some more serious implication in the run-in to the ANC’s elective conference in December.

Radebe is a staunch supporter of embattled President Jacob Zuma’s bid to have his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to take over the ruling party.

Compromising Radebe – even though he has offered no official response to the allegations – could have serious implications to this bid, with the powerful ANC Women’s League undoubtedly caught between a rock and a hard place.

The issue must be urgently resolved to clear the tainted air.