AS WITH many in the ANC leadership, we wish we did not have to write one more word on President Jacob Zuma other than about what he was elected to do. We hope that such a time is not too far off.

AS WITH many in the ANC leadership, we wish we did not have to write one more word on President Jacob Zuma other than about what he was elected to do. We hope that such a time is not too far off.

For now there are still some outstanding issues that require raising. We join those who feel let down by the president's half-hearted attempt at apologising for having fathered a child outside his multiple marriages.

Read carefully, Zuma still refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part.

By "reiterating" as he does, that he has taken "responsibility for my actions towards the family concerned and the child" it is clear that even at this late stage he still misses the point.

He either thinks or pretends that those who feel let down by him are that way inclined because he failed to acknowledge paternity.

South Africans are relatively comfortable with Zuma being a polygamist. What they objected to is that, given his marital circumstances and pronouncements on the need for sexual prudence, he had no business fathering a child with a woman who was not one of his three wives or his fiancée.

Zuma could have told the drafters of the message that he would not attach his name to the statement because he still felt strongly that his rights and those of his partner and child were violated - or apologised in a manner that creates the impression he sees the error of his ways.

He tried to muddle the two and now we have a hollow statement bereft of any sincerity and therefore doing more harm than the good his aides sought to achieve.