BECAUSE it is August, the month of fashionable noises about sex pests and the like, we're compelled, I suppose, to dwell on this mess with Zwelinzima Vavi, he of the exciting trousers and a certain way with the ladies.

Support for the Cosatu general secretary has been growing now that the rape complaint has been withdrawn and there has been excited talk of his "rehabilitation". In one of the reports, the Daily Maverick even described his grubby behaviour as an "indiscretion", as if squiring a junior employee on your desk during office hours was a trivial business. Nothing more than a harmless pecker-dillo. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Predictably, there has been dark chatter of conspiracies from the trade unions. Many, like the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, were adamant that a third party had plotted with Vavi's accuser, a 26-year-old married woman, in a bid to discredit him. "The question," Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said, "is who are these people?"

Another question may well be: "On the desk? What was in it for the workers?" 

There's no doubt that Vavi has enemies. Perhaps they include those who, in the words of another union, targeted him "because he has dared to speak truth to power, on unemployment, the absence of service delivery, on corruption, and many other issues". 

But his biggest enemy is himself. Judging by his comments this week, he is vain and delusional, possessed of a narcissism that is probably psychopathic. 

On Sunday, he suggested that dealing with the rape allegations would require "great sensitivity and maturity . . . on my part", as dignity was at stake and "private individuals" were involved. No task too demanding, then.

"There are two families and children on both sides involved in this extremely delicate matter," he said. "Their interests are foremost in my mind as we go through this period . . . While I fully appreciate the media value and interest in this matter, I, on behalf of both families, am appealing to the media and the public to give us the privacy which we all deserve, as we work through this matter. I am also fully aware that because of my work and life, this matter obviously offers a goldmine for those fishing for sensational stories."

The nobility is touching, but as windfalls go, a jumped-up shop steward's bad behaviour is really bread-and-butter stuff in the news business. We're not exactly dealing with Bill Clinton here, you know.

Vavi's apology yesterday - not only to Cosatu members, but "every South African" - was another embarrassing display of a man bothering himself. Graciously admitting that he alone was to blame for the "incident", he piously added, "I am only human and not a perfect saint. I have learnt so much from the mistake and I commit to never repeat the same, and in the process hand over to the enemies of the working class a victory on a silver platter."

He vowed to regain the "lost trust" of both his family and the country. "I am back on my feet. I have a mandate to fulfil." Canonisation is surely next.

Not everyone is impressed. The ANC Women's League is justifiably angry with Vavi, and has dismissed Cosatu's internal hearing into the matter as unsatisfactory. In a statement issued on Monday, they said they viewed the withdrawal of the complaint with "utmost concern and extreme disappointment", with league president Angie Motshekga further suggesting the matter be taken to the courts for due process.

The ANCWL's position has, of course, upset Vavi's supporters. Irvin Jim, again, has made alarming huffing sounds about the league's "selective amnesia" and "discrimination", declaring, "Nowhere in the ANCWL statement do they make even a hint that comrade Vavi could be innocent. They instead conclude that the withdrawal of the allegations would harm future similar efforts in the workplace to seek justice by rape and sexual harassment victims."

This was the same ANCWL who last year investigated Vavi's behaviour during the Democratic Alliance's march on Cosatu House in Braamfontein, when he told members, "[DA leader Helen Zille] is stripped naked. Everywhere, everyone will know the difference between uncompromised, principled positions of the working class and [those] of the DA. I don't need a wife. I have a very beautiful wife. I am already married, we are not up for takers. We are married to the ANC. We are married to the SACP, and are married to the Freedom Charter."

Then it was decided that Vavi's babble had a "political and ideological context" and was not "literal". That was, it must be said, an accommodating position from the women. It won't happen again in a hurry.

This article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.

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