Big Women Behaving Badly: Is Society Ready for Big Women Scandal?

Big Women Behaving Badly: Is Society Ready for Big Women Scandal?

We are so much accustomed to big men scandals that when big women occasionally get sleazy, it torpedoes our social comfort zones. A woman by nature is a symbol of love and tenderness but when monstrosity suddenly squirts to high heaven from the TLC fountain; it sends the world into a whirl of disarray.

Is scandal a preserve of men? Yes and no. Yes because they top the shady list and no because history is replete with women who occasionally throw a sordid shocker. Ma Baker of the American crime infamy is such one illustrious example. But when the fairer sex throws one scandal, men answer with a hundred. So, men response to Ma Baker is Carlos the Jackal, Osama Bin Laden, Polpot, Robin Hood, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin Dada ad nauseam. It is fair to conclude that society is more used to men scandals than women scandals.

But who says women are incapable of some cold juicy saga?

Most dictators, plunderers, murderers and adulterers are men in high position. But of late, spouses of good big men are throwing their panties in the dirt ring! The sex scandals of Iris Robinson, wife of the leader of Northern Ireland Mr. Pat Robertson and the arrest of Mrs. Sheryl Cwele, wife of South Africa’s intelligence minister Mr. Siyabonga Cwele nudge our society to the realization that women are up to the game in the muck race.

Other trail blazers are Winnie Mandela and Joyce Mujuru of Zimbabwe.


Winnie Mandela

Former wife of South Africa’s world most revered man and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Madiba Mandela.

Winnie Mandela has the most perplexing of reputation. She is a heroine as well as a villain in equal measure.

She contributed immensely to the fight against apartheid in SA through her fearless activism and got a fair share of suffering from the repressive regime. She organized strikes and distributed anti-apartheid literature. Banished to a small and remote township at the height of apartheid, arrested and having to raise two children under constant harassment from the police state, Winnie Mandela was rebellious and loved earning herself the title of ‘Mother of the Nation’.

Her rare ability to lead is unfortunately packaged with a bizarre streak of crime and fraud.

She terrorized her neighborhood in Soweto and was linked to the kidnap and subsequent murder of a child activist, Stompie Moeketsi in 1988. Her scandals did not end there, on numerous occasions, she has been charged with theft. When Nelson Mandela was released, their marriage went kaput after stories of adultery emerged.

South Africans and the world do not know what personality of Winnie Mandela to embrace. The heroine or the criminal? In spite of these , she is still a powerful and influential figure within the ANC, recognized world wide and wealthy.

Just a case of a big woman gone bad!

Mrs. Joyce Mujuru

The Zimbabwean Vice President, Joyce Mujuru is the epitomization of Zimbabwean powerful and wealthy elite. Her husband, Mr. Solomon Mujuru was head of the army after independence in 1980 and still influential in the military.

While ordinary Zimbabweans grapple with unimaginable poverty, a few kleptocrats surrounding Mr. Mugabe are getting filthy rich at the expense of the people. The Mujurus quintessentially represent this clique. They loot foreign currency to finance lavish lifestyles that ordinary folks only get a glimpse of on TV whenever there is power.

Apart from that, in early 2008, Mrs. Joyce Mujuru was linked to a multi-million gold deal that was to be sold illegally in Europe. The Mujurus are reported to have mining interests in the DRC which was the source of the gold. Mrs. Mujuru Featured prominently in the saga more than her husband. At the centre of the scandal was her daughter, Ms Nyasha Del Campo, whom she was using to evade the sanctions that have been slapped by the west on Zimbabwean elites.

Joyce Mujuru financed the deal to transport the gold via Nairobi to Zurich but the deal came a cropper after the company discovered who Mrs. Mujuru was. She was subsequently blacklisted alongside her husband.

Another sad case of a big woman using her position for irregular gain! It is against the grain for women to go an extra sordid mile to achieve wealth. But, could it become a trend?

Mrs. Sheryl Cwele

Wife of South Africa’s intelligence minister, Mr. Siyabonga Cwele, Sheryl Cwele is under arrest for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into South Africa from Brazil and Turkey using accomplices.

Sheryl Cwele was charged with procuring a woman to collect drugs in Turkey and of getting another woman to smuggle cocaine from Brazil.

While most narco-crimes are associated with poverty and hard life, it is puzzling when privileged members of society also partake in it.

When a 50 year old mother and wife of a minister is accused of pushing drugs, something big is afoot in society. The motivation could be more than money. Could it be a new phase of the women lib?

Iris Robertson

The wife of Northern Ireland's first minister, DUP leader Peter Robinson, Mrs. Iris Robinson tryst with a 19 yr old boy almost pushed her husband to resign his post. She herself was forced to resign her seat in parliament after the scandal.

She attempted suicide after suffering depression out of shame.

The scandal is compounded by allegations that she wheedled £50,000 out of two businessmen to help her toyboy set up a café.

Women leaders, married or single, have always maintained discreet and private sexual lives with little or none getting to the limelight. This saga might just be the tip of the iceberg. Maybe women dabble with extra-marital affairs just like their male counterparts.

As more and more societies open up to women leadership, there will be more scrutiny on their private lives and maybe the answer as to whether they are as filthy as men will out.

Could the women folk be asserting themselves and saying, look! We have come of age; we are capable of anything just as you men! Could it be a form of self expression or a rebellious wave against the norms of society?

Have your say!