That is, of course, after he lost it by snorting speed off of the soft parts of a hooker, before commencing a strong backline move and ultimately scoring with the self-same hooker – all of which was caught on tape, presumably for the sole purpose of dissection by Naas Botha and Darren Scott.

In the course of indulging in bought sex and recreational narcotics, Joost completed the dual task of cheating on his wife, Amor Vittone, and sullying his homegrown, cornbread wholesome Afrikaans all-star image.

Conveniently, this all happened right before Joost released his memoir, “Man In The Mirror”, in which he admitted to the 29-minute indescretion.

All of that said, Joost has chosen Christmas 2010 as the right time to buy his reputation back, or, at the very least, assuage some of his paralyzing guilt with something besides speedballs and piles of nubile eighteen year old physiotherapy students putting themselves through university.

Apparently he’s buying toys for homeless kids, and getting pretty emotional about it. News24 is gushing and breathless over the story.

Johannesburg – Former Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen sent 89 underprivileged children into a toy shop this week and told them to “choose whatever you want.”

A toy shop in Little Falls, west of Johannesburg, had to close its doors for three hours so that Van der Westhuizen and the children could make their purchases in private.

There were tears, joy and disbelief as the children ran through the shop’s aisles filling up their baskets.

Read the rest of the report, here.

Look, the act in itself is wonderful. I’m sure that the homeless children were enriched by the experience of an adult showing them particular interest and care.

But like the absent parent who throws money at their estranged children, this escapade seems more to be for the adult’s benefit than anyone else’s.

How many PR consultations can you get for R40 000? Anyone?

[Source : News24]

[Image : Gallo]