Is saying sorry enough?

Yesterday Jacob Zuma issued a pretty well crafted PR apology to the SA people, family, friends and the ANC. I am not sure he quite said “I am really and truly sorry” but it is obvious from his previous statement wherein the media was committing child abuse, infringement of his human rights and a multitude of other stuff that media generally do. It is obvious that this apology was an attempt to put him in a better light and was probably at the instigation of the ANC and some sensible person who was trying to save his day.

Here is a old man person who has publically apologized a number of times. Does that wipe the slate clean? Does saying sorry mean that all should be forgiven? How about in your relationships – can you easily forgive a well crafted apology from your nearest and dearest? Not that JZ is my nearest and dearest but you get the picture.

My problem with this is that he already has a few wives and I understand that extra marital affairs are frowned on even in a polygamous marriage. I also believe that you can’t keep falling back on the predictable utterance of “it’s my culture”.

In June last year I wrote a blog about trust – and I think this is the issue I have with JZ. Firstly his fraud/corruption trials, his rape trial and various utterances that I cock an eyebrow at. I don’t trust him. In the blog about trust I cited a number of examples of ordinary citizens thumbing their noses at either the law or conventional norms and standards. And one of the questions I I asked was: How much do you trust your business partner/colleague who cheats on his/her life partner? (http://happinesssoup.blogspot.com/2009/06/trust-issue.html)

So: is saying sorry enough?