SOUTH AFRICA: ANC leader and Presidential candidate Jacob Zuma dismisses fear of lurch to left

Record ID: 452358

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: ANC leader and Presidential candidate Jacob Zuma dismisses fear of lurch to left
  • Date: 28th March 2009
  • Summary: (English), ANC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JACOB ZUMA, SAYING: "I think what we could say, the situation in Zimbabwe has entered a process of stabilisation because an agreement has been put in place. You now have a prime minister, you have a president, you have a deputy prime minister, you have parliament that is operating. It's a starting point. Because you needed a political system first in the first instance to come in to address the difficulties in Zimbabwe and it is that political situation of the Government of National Unity- the transitional government that must begin then to address the social issues and the economic issues. Without that political set up it wouldn't do so. So, you can't therefore say it has stabilised, but it has entered a phase of stabilisation, politically. And I think it is important that we should look at that fairly because there are people who hold the view that in fact that are not even going to support Zimbabwe, because they've got a very specific objective and some of them think that President Mugabe must be out. If President Mugabe is still there we can't help. I think it is so unfair to the Zimbabwean people, because here is Mugabe he's a factor, he's there. He leads a party that has been in government for over 20 years. And why should we make such a demand from outside because the Zimbabwean people have spoken (mobile phone signal interruption) through the vote. When there was elections it is not as if not a single human being voted for Mugabe in Zimbabwe, he had a very big percentage himself, so he has a sizeable support, if not him, his party. So he's part of the situation in Zimbabwe. You can't then say I want him out only to give any attention to Zimbabwe, it's unfair, but of course people have a right to make their own decisions." ZUMA AND JOURNALISTS
  • Embargoed: 12th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3XLO3VRJJQXHYCEHEKVJQ9K0D
  • Story Text: In what is expected to be his last interview before South Africa's elections April 22, ruling party leader Jacob Zuma discusses the party's prospects for the election as well as the situation in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
    Ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on Friday (March 27) dismissed fears that South Africa's economic policy would lurch to the left after elections next month and said a new dissident group would have no impact.
    In a Reuters interview, expected to be his last before the April 22 elections, Zuma said the ruling ANC was likely to increase its majority and the new COPE party (Congress of the People) posed no threat to its dominance since the end of apartheid in 1994.
    Zuma has strong support from the Communist Party and trade unions, leading to some suggestions he will shift away from the business-friendly policies of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki when he becomes state president, as expected, after the vote.
    But he said the ANC had been backed by unions and the left since the 1950s and there was nothing new or unique in their support for him, and that South Africa would always be attractive to foreign investors.
    "We are a rich country, we have got the resources. No-one in the private sector is going to run away from us, they are going to come because they have to do business," he said. "We are not shying away from the point that our policies are poor and worker-biased."
    Mbeki, ousted by Zuma last year, was accused of not moving fast enough to bring the benefits of black rule to the country's army of poor.
    Zuma would not comment on reports that state prosecutors are close to dropping major graft charges that have plagued him for several years. But he said he had always acted within the law in challenging the charges.
    "Bear in mind that of course for the first time, NPA was confronted with the clarification and answers on allegations, which they had not had before. And many other things that were part of the presentation, I don't know what the NPA is going to say. I hear the speculations and some of your colleagues writing very eloquently about what the NPA is supposed to do.
    I don't know, I don't work with them. I'm waiting that the day they've concluded they will definitely come up and indicate whether they are proceeding with the charges or they are withdrawing the charges. I don't know," said Zuma.
    Zuma said the ANC would toughen policies on crime in South Africa, saying the judicial system had been too "user-friendly" to criminals. Africa's biggest economy has some of the worst rates of violent crime outside a war zone.
    Zuma said the global economic crisis had hit South Africa like the rest of the world but tight financial discipline and regulation of banks had acted as a "shock absorber." He said a quick and concerted response by government, private business and trade unions had lessened the impact.
    He also criticised Western powers for holding back aid to Zimbabwe while President Robert Mugabe was still in power.

    "I think it is so unfair to the Zimbabwean people, because here is Mugabe he's a factor, he's there. He leads a party that has been in government for over 20 years. And why should we make such a demand from outside because the Zimbabwean people have spoken through the vote. When there was elections it is not as if not a single human being voted for Mugabe in ZImbabwe, he had a very big percentage himself, so he has a sizeable support, if not him, his party. So he's part of the situation in Zimbabwe. You can't then say I want him out only to give any attention to Zimbabwe, it's unfair, but of course people have a right to make their own decisions," Zuma told Reuters.
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