Luke-warm crowd for Zuma

President spoke of closing poverty gap

President Jacob Zuma drew an impassive response at the 3rd presidential local government summit in Midrand, Johannesburg, yesterday.

When Zuma took to the podium to deliver a keynote address few delegates broke into song.

“Asinavalo sisebenza kanzima”, some sang and ululated.

This was a clear sign that Zuma is still popular among some people despite growing calls for him to step down following his cabinet reshuffle last week .

Zuma spoke about the ANC’s socio-economic radical transformation agenda and scars of apartheid on the country, rarely veering off script.

“But let us remind ourselves what we mean by radical socioeconomic transformation,” Zuma said. “We mean the fundamental change in the structure, systems, institutions and patterns of ownership, management and control of the economy in favour of all South Africans, especially the poor.”

Radical socio-economic transformation is the key theme of the ANC discussion documents ahead of the party’s policy conference in June.

He continued: “We cannot say it is all fine when there is extreme poverty and extreme richness, the gap must be closed,” Zuma added.

Zuma blamed the apartheid government for building fourroomed houses in the townships, saying: “We need normal houses for all South Africans.” Ironically, the ANC government has built even smaller RDP houses.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen launched a veiled attack on EFF leader Julius Malema, saying: “Oliver Tambo was a guerrilla. We will be trapped in a situation where people call themselves commander-in-chiefs (sic) because we don’t tell our history.”