Evita targeted in 'WikiLeaks'

Cape Town - In the latest embarrassment for US diplomacy, WikiLeaks has revealed that the US ambassador to Pretoria described a former South African envoy as "a cross between Mata Hari and Miss Piggy".

That's if you believe Evita Bezuidenhout, one-time ambassador to the apartheid-era homeland of Bapetikosweti. Which may not be wise.

Bezuidenhout, the heavily-rouged alter ego of entertainer Pieter-Dirk Uys, made the claim in a statement issued on Friday.

She said WikiLeaks had disclosed that the US ambassador last year urged US President Barack Obama to dissuade President Jacob Zuma from inviting Bezuidenhout to become his sixth wife.

"Besides this Afrikaans symbol of the old apartheid regime being a cross between Mata Hari and Miss Piggy, she makes Hillary Clinton act like Mother Theresa," the alleged communication said.

"Jacob Zuma needs a wife who sleeps during state addresses, not an ambitious Madame Mao."

In another "WikiLeaks" revelation, the US Vice Consul in Cape Town allegedly cabled Washington that Bezuidenhout said in a 2003 dinner conversation that the apartheid government had done "a terrible thing" to former president Thabo Mbeki.

"They never put him in jail," she had said. "No wonder he was so disadvantaged."

She had said Nelson Mandela had led the way by showing that politicians first went to jail and then into politics, not the other way round.

Bezuidenhout's office said the 75-year-old grand dame "has yet to react to these contentious allegations".

The real WikiLeaks organisation caused a stir this week by releasing the first batch of what it said would be a quarter of a million confidential US diplomatic communications.