THERE was a time when I used to think we South Africans were a society of prudes.

This week's events have contrived to confirm my suspicion that we get shocked by things that shouldn't make an ordinary, civilised person even raise an eyebrow.

I mean, poor Pastor Sibusiso Zondo strips naked in the presence of someone who - just for the fun of it - proceeds to make a video of him and then puts it online. Lo and behold it goes viral. Everyone and their dog go: hhawu, hhawu!

But why? What's the big deal? A naked man? Haven't you guys seen a naked man before? Or, those of you who are men, haven't you lost count of the times you've been naked in front of someone?

I had to watch the video a number of times looking for clues as to what might have got so many people's heart rates galloping faster than Bafana Bafana getting knocked out of Afcon.

Suspecting that perhaps Zondo's zombo had something peculiar to it that a naked eye couldn't detect, I rushed to a shop where private investigators buy their tools. I bought myself a magnifying glass that would have made Sherlock Holmes green with envy.

Upon my return to my house, I put the good magnifying glass to use, first locating and then assessing Zondo's zombo. Having sweated my way through this delicate assessment, I wiped my brow with the back of my hand and asked myself repeatedly: am I missing a point? What is it that has resulted in ordinary South Africans having their knickers in a knot?

It's not as if Zondo was doing anything untoward in the video. He was just being his naked self. Is that a sin?

In fact, there is a part of me that makes me think Zondo was being naked for a good cause. He was perhaps performing his pastoral duties - doing a practical meditation on the meaning of Original Sin.

Most of us who were born into Christianity will know that before Eve gave Adam a bite of the forbidden fruit, the old chap would walk around the Garden of Eden in his birthday suit.

And it was no big deal. The monkeys and gorillas simply shrugged their shoulders at naked old Adam and carried on munching their nuts. If they had any opinions about Adam's zombo, they kept those to themselves.

So, maybe Pastor Zondo was just going down memory lane, trying to recall what it must have felt for old Adam to prance about in his birthday suit, secure in the knowledge that the video being made would be shared with open-minded Christians who would appreciate it for what it was: a cry for the return to the Age of Innocence.

There are many things that South Africans should get offended by.

When that other pastor was shown making his congregants to graze on grass like cattle, the general response from South Africans at large was laughter.

That's when we should have been outraged.

That pastor was forcing people to debase themselves in the misguided belief that their problems would be solved, their earnest prayers answered.

We should have been highly offended at TB Joshua's refusal to take full responsibility for the death of those who lost their lives inside one of his buildings in Lagos, Nigeria. But we simply shrugged and moved on.

Poor Zondo gets penetrated by the holy ghost and takes his clothes off to make an innocent demonstration about Original Sin and we get offended? Pu-leez!

I was even more taken aback when the SABC announced on Monday that it would no longer schedule Zondo on Ukhozi FM's breakfast show Vuka Motivation.

"This follows the unfortunate incident of the release to the public of a video and photos purported to be of Pastor Zondo in a compromising position," spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said in a statement.

A lot of obscene things have happened at the SABC that should have seen this entire nation in high dudgeon.

It took a century before this nation admitted to itself that it was scandalous to keep SABC board chairman Ellen Tshabalala on her perch when it was clear she did not have the qualifications she was claiming.

I think South Africans have lost sense of the meaning of the word "scandal". It takes a lot of effort to boot up your computer, go to Youtube, search for Pastor Zondo, and see the "offending" video.

If the sunbathers at Camps Bay or Hibiscus beach offend you, don't go there.

I was very heartened by a picture on the front page of The Daily Sun on Wednesday.

It shows a man walking in downtown Joburg in his birthday suit, without a care in the world. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden. Zondo has a convert.

When I saw that man, I felt like shouting: hands off Zondo's zombo, you tjatjarag, holier-than-thou, hypocritical South Africans.

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