The year’s most cringe-worthy moments
The outrageous, the gaffes, the oops moments and the contentious – Liz Clarke looks at the ear-catching utterances of 2015
President of South Africa If there was ever an annus horribilis for Jacob Zuma it had to be 2015, when very little seemed to go right for the beleaguered president, with Nkandla and parliamentary upheavals, et al.
The year ended with a resounding fall in banking shares after his shock removal of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and saw thousands marching, demanding his resignation.
Whether he is being unfairly treated or not, his re-marks and blunders during the year haven’t helped his cause; top of the list being his belief that the ANC came before the country, which left many opponents wondering whether they belonged in the land or not.
“People, if they are not part of the ANC and there was no ANC they could be misled. They could be under… oppression forever, adding that people without a revolutionary organisation, could be in trouble, like many who have been in trouble.”
Geography and maths were also not his strong points. He told a meeting of business leaders last month that Africa was the world’s largest continent – and all other continents could fit into it. For the record Africa is 30.22 million km² and has a population of 1.111 billion. Asia is 44.58 million km², with a population of 4.427 billion.
Speaking at the governing party’s National General Council – where thousands of delegates gathered to review policies – Zuma decried the decline of ANC membership which, he estimated, had decreased by about 20 percent.
But during his closing speech on Sunday night at Midrand, he also fumbled the numbers and failed to be clear over just what the numbers were – which had nothing to do with the numbers written on his speech papers.
He seemed to think the ANC membership numbers were down from 100.2 million. That’s a lot of members given that SA only has about 55 million people in the entire country.
Minister of Basic Education Faced with an education meltdown she remarked: “We have no crisis in quality of education.”
On Zuma’s belief that all women must marry and have children:
“If President Jacob Zuma says young women must marry and other things, let’s not make a big thing out of it.”
The Commission for Gender Equality later warned President Jacob Zuma to watch what he says when speaking about women. Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters In 2015 there were no sacred cows for political maverick Julius Malema. Zuma was once his ally, now he is seemingly an arch foe.
Malema told a gathering at Oxford University in the UK last month: “If the president does not like red berets, a law will be passed that all red berets are banned in this country. If he does not like a corruption fighting institution like the Scorpions, he closes it down so that he can go and steal R250 million.”
Malema was making a reference to the approximately R246m spent on upgrades to Zuma’s Nkandla homestead – an issue that brought Parliament to a raucous and angry standstill.
“South Africa will become one of the failed African states,” he predicts.
Attacking Nelson Mandela, however, might have been a step too far.
Comments last month that Mandela sold-out the struggle of the people and of South Africa and deviated from the Freedom Charter, have been universally condemned by political parties and civil society.
But defiance Malema’s game.
“You can arrest me,” he shouts to the speaker of the house “but you can’t arrest my ideas. It doesn’t matter how much we irritate you… we are a necessary irritation.”
is
still Issues to do with the king usually relate to palace expenses, but not in 2015. Controversy has surrounded many of his public remarks.
He ruffled feathers when, according to press reports, he did the unthinkable, praising the apartheid regime during celebrations of his 44 years on the throne at the kwaKhethomthandayo royal palace in Nongoma.
The National Party, he reportedly told the gathering, had built a powerful government with the strongest economy and army on the continent, but then came “this so-called democracy” in which “black people started destroying the gains of the past”.
However, the Zulu Royal House later said the king’s message, aimed at encouraging people to return to farming, was misinterpreted. It clarified that he was referring to the way the previous government trained farmers.
Earlier this year, the king came in for more flak when he reportedly said that “foreigners should pack their bags and go back to their countries” fuelling, some have suggested, the subsequent wave of countrywide xenophobic violence.
A final report from the South African Human Rights Commission will be released in February.
DA politician and MP The King might get away with his remarks about the old regime, but when it comes to opposition politicians the playing fields are not quite as even. In an interview with radio broadcaster 702 recently, the DA spokeswoman for police said she would not put up a fight if the party wanted her to resign.
This came after she admitted reposting a Facebook post by mistake that suggested that former apartheid president PW Botha provided better services to the public. Kohler Barnard has since apologised for the post, saying that it didn’t reflect her sentiments and that she didn’t read the entire post.
She accepts that her actions might have damaged the party’s reputation. Initial rulings expelled her from the party, but on appeal whe retained her position as an MP.
“I’ve never done anything as stupid. Now I must face the hurricane,” she says.
British Prime Minister Emotions have run high over the issue of refugees fleeing their countries and risking their lives to find safe havens in Europe. Within this context David Cameron’s description of migrants in Calais as a “swarm of people” trying to reach Britain didn’t go down well. Civil rights groups immediately rounded on him, saying his reference to migrants as a “swarm” was dehumanising.
Speaking during a visit to Vietnam, Cameron told ITV News attempts to enter the UK had increased because “you have got a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life, wanting to come to Britain because Britain has got jobs, it’s got a growing economy, it’s an incredible place to live”.
Suspended police commissioner Questioned by the Farlam commission into the Marikana tragedy in which 37 miners were killed by police bullets, she simply retorted: “I can’t remember.
“I’m not able to give that kind of pedantic detail.” American businessman and Republican presidential candidate “I think people want the truth,” he says. “I think they’re tired of politicians. They’re tired of politically correct stuff.”
But not even his followers thought he would go quite so far as suggesting a complete shutdown of all Muslims entering the US “until the country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
His message came in the wake of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected IsisS sympathisers.
“I could have said, there’s no Muslim problem, everything is won- derful, just forget about the World Trade Centre,” he told a local TV station. “But you have to speak the truth. We’re so politically correct that this country is falling apart.”
Trump has previously called for surveillance of mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the US.
His outrageous remarks have angered critics, who say that demonising MuslimAmericans could help Isis recruit.
If that wasn’t controversial enough his remarks recently on Hilary Clinton’s toilet breaks have left people openmouthed
He told his followers at Grand Rapids, Michigan that Hillary Clinton’s use of the restroom at the last Democratic debate was “too disgusting” to talk about.
He then capped that with a remark that in 2008 she (Hillary) got “schlonged” by Barack Obama when he defeated her in the Democratic primary, turning a vulgar noun for a large penis into a verb.
Sports minister “We’ve never acted in Hollywood” – the irrepressible minister Fikile Mbalula said, refuting allegations that bribes were paid to secure hosting rights to the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Observers are hoping he is right.
More recently it is his Twitter antics that have caught the eye.
During the Rugby World Cup clash with US he tweeted “Dear US, we won’t even remember we are related to you – we will win this”.
It was felt not to be sportsmanlike. While Captain Jean de Villiers urged his players to become role models for the youth, Mabula urged them to “moer hulle dood”