SA a ‘broken society led by a broken man’
CAPE TOWN — President Jacob Zuma and his government came under withering attack by opposition party leaders in the National Assembly yesterday, with Mr Zuma being described as a “broken man” presiding over a broken society.
The attack followed a tense start to the joint sitting when for the first time in parliamentary history, the minutes of a session — the proceed- ings at last week’s state of the nation event — were questioned by Freedom Front Plus MP Corne Mulder because they did not record the walkout of opposition parties, objections to use of a cellphone signal jammer and forced removal of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPs.
EFF MPs also objected to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete’s dismissal of them as “cockroaches” outside of Parliament last week.
The sitting for replies to Mr Zuma’s state of the nation address hovered on the brink of breakdown and was kept on track only by the conciliatory approach of presiding officer Thandi Modise.
She gave the assurance that the minutes would be corrected by today and that the objections of the EFF would be conveyed to Ms Mbete.
Heavy security measures were maintained around Parliament with members of the Presidential Protection Unit stationed at all entrances to oversee the work of the usual South African Police Service personnel. Opposition MPs were even searched.
Opposition parties criticised Mr Zuma’s lack of fresh ideas to deal with the country’s problems, his lack of leadership and his failure to deal with sluggish economic growth and high unemployment.
African National Congress (ANC) MPs leapt to the defence of the presi
dent and the ruling party.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan insisted the ANC was the leading organisation for transformation. “We are not a broken organisation. We are not a broken country,” he said.
Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane led the attack against Mr Zuma saying that he was “not an honourable man”. Mr Zuma was responsible for last week’s breakdown of Parliament and his response had been to laugh and deliver a “cold and empty” address full of stale ideas, he said.
Mr Zuma was “willing to break every democratic institution” including Parliament to fix his personal legal predicament. The president was running away from 783 counts of corruption, fraud and racketeering, Mr Maimane said.
Mr Zuma had not offered any real solutions to the electricity crisis, the crisis of joblessness and the plague of crime. “All the president has offered us is a populist proposal to ban foreign landownership. This will only kill investment and jobs,” Mr Maimane said.
While other Southern African countries were growing at an average 5.6% per year, Mr Zuma admitted SA’s ambition to grow at 5% by 2019 was at risk. The cause was the state’s policy failures, he said.
EFF leader Julius Malema criticised the government for failing to live up to the aspirations of the Freedom Charter.