Behind every successful (con)man there is a strong woman, if I may indulge in the dictum.

Behind every successful (con)man there is a strong woman, if I may indulge in the dictum.

Today's column is therefore dedicated to petite Lumka Yengeni, the loyal wife of Tony Yengeni, now dubbed The Celebrity Fraudster.

Music icons have composed gems about women's devotion to their men and the world continues to merrily sing along.

The legendary late Margaret Singana charmed many a heart with Stand By Your Man in the 1970s.

In 1972 Bill Withers unleashed the hit Lean On Me, which has become entrenched in its passage through many generations. There is even a rap version of Lean On Me.

We see this kind of loyalty every day between men and women who have sworn to love each other forever.

We see this each night on our television screens, between Tony and Lumka.

Their trademark, very dark, designer sunglasses, look like a permanent feature of their faces - or are they hiding from the world in style?

Lumka has dutifully stood or walked, depending on the occasion, by her man's side from day one of the vexing fraud trial that eventually led to him being jailed.

And she makes sure that she looks her finest when she falls into step with her hero.

She never says anything publicly, Lumka.

The only time she tried, her simple, single-lined but terse statement made headlines.

This was when her husband was caught on camera with a bottle of beer, openly violating his parole conditions.

Holding the [opened] bottle did not mean he drank the beer, Lumka said.

Now, eat your heart out. That's what I call total allegiance; being there for him even if it means bending the truth about the obvious, or simply being smart.

Call it blind loyalty if you wish. How many married women have that today?

See, Tony and Lumka's union was no coincidence; they were made for each other.

I'll try to illustrate this. Minutes after being released on correctional supervision this week, Tony insisted he was not a fraudster.

This in spite of being convicted at a properly conducted trial and after his appeal failed.

"I did nothing wrong," he insisted.

So it made perfect sense when Lumka dared the media to prove that Tony eintlik drank the beer he was holding during the party at his home.

Perhaps it also makes sense that Lumka keeps such a low, or should we say, quiet profile.

Be that as it may, I wonder why she seldom, if ever, says anything, and why she has not said anything publicly about any issue before.

As the wife of one of the ANC's power elite, though Tony has fallen from grace, Lumka must surely hold an opinion on something.

Tony is the ANC's former chief whip. What did Lumka do when he slugged it out with the opposition during his heyday in parliament?

Did she sit in the public gallery and wait for him to finish so that they could go home together?

Now that Tony will be cleaning toilets and sweeping the streets as part of his community service, will Lumka again be by his side?