Zuma tells Afrikaners they ’ re here to stay for good
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma yesterday allayed fears of the minority groups, especially the Afrikaner community, saying there were no plans to drive them out of the country.
But he emphasised the importance of teaching young people about the political history of the country.
He was responding to the debate of his state of the nation address where some political parties accused him of using apartheid as a scapegoat for his government ’ s failures.
Zuma departed from his written speech to reflect on the country ’ s history in an attempt to explain why he had earlier said the coun- try ’ s problems started with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder on Wednesday accused Zuma of playing “scapegoat politics ” in which he blamed his government ’ s failures on the past and treating Afrikaners with disdain.
“We ’ re all South African citizens, we ’ re a rainbow nation and nobody will chase you away, ” Zuma said.
“We ’ ll fight against those who will say so, so there must be no fear at all.
“I just want to make this point clear, that we ’ ll never stop talking about the history because our children must know where we come from so that coming generations should not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Zuma said he thought it was important to clarify the point because people thought he was racist when he made it “in passing.
“I will never be racist, I fight against those who suppress the minorities.”
In a rare moment, Zuma also complimented his political foes, mentioning them by name, except official opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, who on Tuesday mounted a vicious attack against Zuma in which he called the president a “broken man, presiding over a broken society ”.
He complimented leaders such as EFF leader Julius Malema and his Cope counterpart Mosiuoa Lekota for their positive inputs during the two-day debate.
However, Zuma slammed MPs for behaving badly in parliament.
He said the national legislature was not a war zone, but a forum to debate issues of national interest without drawing daggers.
Zuma applauded veteran MP and IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi for reprimanding warring MPs, saying he was the institution ’ s father figure.
But the president warned that he would “deal strongly ” with the insults that had been hurled at him when he answers questions in the chamber next month.