Humans and Their Nature

The greatest scientists of the earth have, for many centuries, tried to understand the nature of humans and their bizarre traits.

Many have come with theories of why people do what people do. The social worker will always have a theory on why the male child is behaving the way he does and why the girl child behaves in a particular manner.

The psychologist will always point things to the psyche of man. The economist will look at "other factors influencing the behavior" man. All of these people have an idea about what they think the reasons are for people to behave in certain manner. When Vuyo Mbuli (may his soul rest) passed away, there were reports on how he cheated on his wife with 18 women.

Tiger Woods was said to have had 10 girlfriends while still married and President Zuma was also accused of extra-marital affairs (which he had a couple of). All these guys did was what many, many other people do. And now it is Zwelinzima Vavi's turn. Many people talk about how Vavi is wrongfully accused of rape, and others talk about how he is being let off the hook by authorities just because he holds high office COSATU. But wait.

I dare say that these issues which are worrying people so much - cheating people and extra-marital affairs - are so common in every village, town, city or country. People do these things. Vavi even admitted that. The issue here really, lies not so much on the accusation from the "strikingly beautiful" woman (as a Sunday newspaper described her) but on the shock that people had when it dawned to them that it is not only them who cheat, but their leaders as well.

As a family man and woman, Vavi and his accuser should have known that these things do come out. Humans are attracted to other humans, even when they are married and as evident from the cases of Zuma and others, things can be corrected. The extra-marital thing is not going away anytime, in fact it is never going away.

So, let us make all the noise about how Vavi was accused of rape, but not about how he should never have cheated, because that is not anybody's place to speak. It is Vavi, his wife, the accuser and her husband who will speak about that.