‘Be a gentleman or lady’
DON’T HURL INSULTS: JZ SAYS PEOPLE SHOULD NOT FIGHT EACH OTHER
Rather work together to build the country, Zuma says at Freedom Day address.
Politics is not about insults, according to President Jacob Zuma. Delivering the keynote address at the national Freedom Day event in KwaZuluNatal yesterday, Zuma said some people entered politics without understanding how it works.
He said for one to be a respected politician, they needed to be a gentleman or a lady. “We fought against apartheid and now that we are free, there is no need for us to fight one another but to work together to build our country.”
Zuma said if you loved your country and wanted your party to be in power one day, “you don’t have to insult others and if you know politics, you will not join people who insult others”.
The president has been under pressure from people who have been calling for him to step down following his unpopular decision to reshuffle the Cabinet, in which former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, were axed.
Taking a swipe at those who have been calling for him to step down, Zuma said instead of celebrating Freedom Day, others, particularly those who converged on the Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria, continued with their insults.
He said the biggest problem was that some people went into politics without having an understanding of politics.
Zuma also focused on racism, saying the ideology of racism was still firmly entrenched among some South Africans.
“In the fight against racism, government is finalising an action plan against it. In 1994, government took a decision to be nonracial. However, the exclusion of black people still continues.”
He said political freedom had been achieved but economic freedom remained largely elusive.
“Let me repeat this, by radical transformation we mean fundamental change in the structure, systems, institutions and patterns of owners in favour of all South Africans, especially the poor, the majority [of whom] are African and women.
“The level of inequality remains high, as only 10% of the top 100 companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange are owned by black South Africans and the pace of black transformation also remains very slow,” Zuma said.
He said government was aware of people’s quest for available land, stressing the land issue would feature prominently at the ANC’s policy conference in June.
Meanwhile, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema yesterday tweeted that SA was a country that claimed freedom but the oppressor lost nothing – instead, conquerors still shared the territory with the conquered.
“You can’t claim 2 be free when you are still dominated by conquerors (whites), freedoms means courage 2 challenge status quo without fear. Zuma is just an irritation and it must be resolved now but the biggest problem is white domination of the strategic sectors of our economy,” he said.
The Freedom Front Plus said the constitution had not brought freedom for everyone.
The SA Communist Party which, despite being an alliance partner of the ANC has also been calling on the president to step down, said the second radical phase of SA’s national democratic revolution, including radical economic emancipation, must speed up the pace of land redistribution based on the Freedom Charter. At the same time, it should combat the rise of oligarchs and deal decisively with corruption, rent-seeking and corporate capture, among others. –
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