While the entire country is preoccupied with the President's incredible sex-life we have decided to take a serious look at whether this is in fact just a normal progression or something that might prove slightly more problematic.

Currently world golfing superstar Tiger Woods is in a sex rehabilitation clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi following affairs with umpteen women, some of whom claimed that he exhibited strange behavior and could not sleep. So too the Chelsea skipper John Terry - while not in a clinic as yet - who carried on numerous affairs despite the knowledge that his conduct could cost him everything.

In the case of President Jacob Zuma we are dealing with polygamy, which is a normal lifestyle chosen by some cultures but to which he has added a few worrying features. The first is of course the story around the rape charge - of which he was completely cleared - and then the fathering of a child with the daughter of a friend.

If all three are added together the question arises whether this is simply a question of a very healthy sex-drive or should the President be seeking help.

The New York Daily News in an article styled "Line between sexed-up and sex addiction hinges on compulsion" sheds a lot of light on the problems of sex addiction.

It was described as follows : "Similarly most healthy adults enjoy sex. However, for approximately 3-8% of the adult population, recreational sex is not just an evening’s flutter. When these people begin having disconnected intense sexual experiences, especially sex that involves secrecy or shame, they also begin to have trouble stopping. We call these people sex addicts.”

The question then arises not so much with the President's wives but in both of the other cases. Why would Zuma choose those two women despite their close ties to his family and friends? The fact that it was consensual must not detract from the little matter of being imprudent in light of those connections.

Does a sex rehab ”cure” you of the desire to have sex for the rest of your life?

"No more than working with people suffering from compulsive eating disorder “cures” them of eating. First, let’s recognize there are two main types of sex disorders. One is the compulsive binge sex addict with dozens of phone numbers of paid escorts stashed away, like you and your pints of gin. But then there’s the irritable, stressed-out person saying they “don’t care if they never have sex again.” Like the compulsively starved, we even use the same description - calling this second type sexually anorexic".

Sex addiction, like gambling, has had major problems in gaining recognition in society with most people assuming that the victims can simply stop whenever they choose to.

In truth it is not that simple.

In the case of Tiger Woods, John Terry and President Zuma, all of whom have the world at their feet, it is that inability to curb this drive which must be a cause for concern.

They have it all to lose, are aware of the intense media scrutiny that comes with the job and yet carry on regardless. This begs the question of whether it really is regardless or something that they cannot stop without help.

Zuma's case is the most extreme if you factor in the following at the time he slept with Irvin Khoza's daughter Sonono Khoza :

- He was running for President ;
- Charged with corruption ;
- Overcoming the effects of the rape trial ;
- Selling polygamy to the South African public ;
- Sonono Khoza was the daughter of a good friend ;
- The factional battle was still dying down and Cope coming onto the scene ;
- Opposition parties looking for any scandal to nail the ANC ;
- He had apologized to the country and vowed not to have unprotected sex at random.

Yet despite all that and the enormous pressure on his shoulders which should have precluded any thoughts of such intercourse he went ahead.

Whether it is the pressure which brings on the compulsion only experts would be able to say but it appears to have gone beyond the right to privacy and now enters the frame as genuine concern for the President's well-being.

It would make him no less a man if he were to have it checked.