Zuma blasts journalists at funeral

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma lambasted journalists at the funeral on Friday of Ontlametse Phalatse who lost her battle with progeria, the premature ageing disease.

Zuma said if he was a journalist he would be writing humaninterest stories about people like Phalatse and not people with the letter “Z”.

“This neighbour is a good neighbour… people should take an example from her… If I was a journalist I would focus on humaninterest stories and stop focusing on headlines which start with the letter Z,” he said in an apparent reference to the “Zuma must go” marches across the country.

Radical economic transformation ‘must happen’

DEPUTY President Cyril Ramaphosa backed the ANC’S call on radical economic transformation during a dinner with the Black Business Council in Johannesburg.

Ramaphosa, who is seen as Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s fiercest opponent for the party presidency, said radical economic transformation “will and must” happen.

But he cautioned that the term must not be used for sloganeering and/or state capture. “We should never allow institutions of our state to be captured by individuals or families for selfinterest.”

He said radical economic transformation would be an important step forward in addressing problems plaguing the country.