Zuma takes aim at West in UN speech
Flays inequalities, Nato’s Libya role
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma used his address to the 72nd UN General Assembly early on Wednesday morning to question some assumptions about Western leaders who touted the success of their countries while paying lip service to inequality.
“The current structure of the global economy continues to deepen the divide between the global north and global south,” Zuma said.
“While a few enjoy the benefits of globalisation, the majority of the peoples of the world still live in abject poverty and hunger, with no hope of ever improving their living conditions.
“Our continent is endowed with mineral resources, but it still has the highest number of least developed countries, while many of the developed countries in the world continue to fuel their development from the resources of the African continent.”
Zuma went further, blasting multinational companies for money laundering, tax evasion and corruption that suck resources illegally out of Africa.
Zuma’s iconoclastic address took on Nato’s continued belief in its intervention in Libya.
Despite a British parliamentary report last year that exposed as a lie Western leader’s cries that a genocide was imminent, none of those leaders have admitted making a mistake in turning that country into a failed state.
“In 2011, the African Union called for dialogue to resolve the crisis in Libya,” Zuma said. “Unfortunately, some among us here opted for guns and bombs.
“Today, those countries are making little effort to promote stability in Libya,” he went on.
“The major focus and preoccupation has become how to deal with the flow of migrants arriving in Europe from our continent and the Middle East, which are just mere symptoms.”
Zuma decried the effect Nato’s intervention had had on the Sahel in spreading arms and terrorism in the region, as well as facilitating weapons transfers to Syria.
“Had our warning been heeded that the supply of arms to civilians in Libya and the arming of civilians in Syria would cause loss of life, great instability and mayhem, the world would be more peaceful today,” he said.
In both Libya and Syria, “we strongly cautioned against seeking to resolve internal challenges of sovereign states by imposing foreign solutions through military means”, Zuma said.
“It is hoped that lessons will be learnt from these tragic episodes in order to make the world a more peaceful place.”