PRESIDENTIAL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa's defence of President Jacob Zuma's HIV-test results in Sowetan on April 26 is both hypocritical and downright nonsensical.

Kodwa falls firmly in the category of those who continue to shamelessly prostrate themselves in front of Zuma and sing for their supper though deep in their hearts they know he is a modern-day joke.

Zuma lacks the integrity to stand on any podium in the fight against HIV and Aids since he has repeatedly, and knowingly, violated the prescribed prevention ethics both in word and deed.

Regrettably, the intrinsic truth is to the contrary. Zuma has seriously set back the fight against HIV and Aids.

He is the epitome of what people must not do and say in order to prevent the spread of the virus. He has multiple sexual partners, hates condoms and has a propensity for sexually indulging himself away from his declared so-called polygamous lifestyle.

Kodwa ridiculously says Zuma's public declaration of his HIV test results was a brave act. It was the most cowardly thing he has ever done. For in revealing his status after knowingly engaging in sex with an HIV- positive woman without a condom and afterwards to boast he is negative, Zuma declared to his largely semi-literate followers that they can fail to protect themselves and get away with it.

The office of the president has never been so loaded with reproach since 1994. By engaging in incoherent debates in defence of the indefensible, sycophants like Kodwa are doing more harm than salvaging whatever is left of the dignity of the Presidency.

Don Shongwe, Windsor East