BRAND NEW ZUMA
No. 1's image makeover
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is on a charm offensive and his office has embarked on a new campaign to spruce up his image.
Expect to see more of Zuma speaking directly to the public in the coming months as he seeks to highlight his government’s successes.
His office was initially tightlipped about the new plans when contacted for comment early this week.
But yesterday, acting presidential spokesman Bongani Majola issued a statement confirming the plans.
“The Presidency has already begun to organise regular media briefings by President Zuma. The intention is to improve the dissemination of information to the public so that people can be better informed about the work of government and be able to engage on the programme of action,” Majola said.
Various government and presidential insiders have told the Sunday Times that Zuma plans to be more visible as a driver of government programmes as he seeks to shift attention from his personal controversies to what is being achieved by his cabinet.
The new approach will include the creation of a presidential press corps, which will give media organisations unprecedented access to Zuma, his cabinet ministers and senior government officials.
Plans for such a press corps were first mooted during Thabo Mbeki’s tenure as president. They failed due to disagreement between the Union Buildings and media organisations over the security vetting of journalists.
Zuma’s office has revived the idea. In Majola’s statement, Zuma is quoted as saying: “We have a duty to inform the public about what government is doing to change their lives so that they can also advise us where there is a need for improvement.
“Government tends to assume that people know automatically, but they cannot know until government goes all out to inform them directly and through the media.”
Zuma said his cabinet “will now no longer wait the whole year before giving feedback” on what he had promised in his state of the nation address.
“The one hour of the Sona MEET AND GREET: President Jacob Zuma meets members of the Khoi and San community on Friday at the Eersterust presidential imbizo. Zuma’s office has embarked on a campaign to spruce up his image
We want to promote communication and Presidency must lead from the front
[state of the nation address] does not allow enough time to fully brief the public. We want to institutionalise and promote communication within government, and the Presidency must lead from the front,” said Zuma.
That Zuma’s office has abandoned its old strategy of giving as little information as possible to the public became clear last month, when, after a complaint from the South African National Editors’ Forum, the Presidency allowed journalists to tour Zu- ma’s Nkandla home to see for themselves the work done there as part of the R246-million security upgrade project.
This was followed by two media briefings last week when Zuma updated the public about the implementation of some of the promises he made during his state of the nation address in February and his Operation Phakisa —– a project aimed at fast-tracking service delivery.
In a rare move, Zuma even took questions from journalists, including offbeat questions such as his views on the killing of Cecil the lion at a game park in Zimbabwe.
This week he was once again out and about, addressing an imbizo in Eersterust, Pretoria, in a campaign against drug abuse.
He was also scheduled to address students at the University of Cape Town’s business school, but had to cancel due to other commitments.
Insiders say the plan is to have a more accessible Zuma to communicate government successes in an attempt to counter the negative publicity the president has been getting in relation to the renovations at Nkandla.
The Presidency said details of the presidential press corps still had to be discussed with Sanef and political journalists.
If agreed to by the media, a group of journalists would be issued with access cards that would allow them to cover the Union Buildings on a regular basis. They may even accompany Zuma on international trips.
There are plans to grant those journalists fortnightly or monthly updates by the president and his ministers on government projects.