South Africa President Jacob Zuma and former US President Bill Clinton have something in common. One might readily think this to be each one’s admission of sexual indiscretion. While that may be true, there is something more to it that makes the issue worse than it is – especially for elected leaders. The two political leaders’ common denominator is rebuilding public image, while regaining credibility in public opinion – after admitting indiscretion.
The world knows what happened to Bill Clinton. Some say the discerning publics forgave him because American economy was on the upswing anyway. Zuma, on the other hand, is taking a beating mainly because South Africa, under his helm, is experiencing extreme economic difficulty.
Wilson Johwa reports in allAfrica.com that ‘Zuma faces an uphill battle regaining public confidence as revelations of his four-month-old illegitimate child disappointed many of his followers last week, and contributed to a negative reaction to his state of the nation address.’ On the other hand, Clinton ‘left office with an approval rating of 66%, the highest presidential end-of-office rating since the Second World War.’
This is, perhaps, the lesson that the likes of Jacob Zuma must learn or, in any case, any man holding a position of public responsibility. Quickly own up to the indiscretion and regain positive public opinion by simply doing your job – or, better yet, doing your job well.
In other words, patch up an ugly canker sore in your personal life with a huge Band-Aid from your professional life and you won’t be perceived as a total failure.
