| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Zuma 'shocked by white poverty' |
| 2008-07-24 |
| The head of South Africa's governing African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has said he is shocked and embarrassed about white poverty in the country. Mr Zuma was speaking after visiting the Bethlehem township near the capital, Pretoria, where white families live without running water or electricity. He said the high level of black poverty did not mean whites did not suffer too. South Africa's Helping Hand says the number of homeless white people has increased by 58% since 2002. A new report by the charity, which helps poor white communities, says more than 130,000 white people in South Africa are homeless. Speaking in Bethlehem, Mr Zuma said: "I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here. The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about." He said he had seen the same problems facing white residents of the township as he had seen in black squatter camps. "This is not about politics, it's about people who are poor, who are in need and want to be helped by government," he said, quoted by the AFP news agency. The trade union Solidarity, whose membership is mainly white, said it welcomed Mr Zuma's visit as an acknowledgement that poverty did not only affect the majority black population. "For a long time whites have been seen as rich and and blacks poor," Solidarity secretary general Flip Buys told the AFP. "Talking about white poverty has been seen as politically incorrect. The emergence of this scourge has left everyone looking for answers." Analysts say Mr Zuma is keen to reach out to the white community at the same time as the main opposition party - which is predominantly white - seeks to increase its appeal to the black community, ahead of next year's election. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #7 Jacob! I see another fund we can create to steal from. |
| Posted by: Percy Spumble4268 2008-07-24 20:26 |
| #6 Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has been a huge and resounding success in South Africa. I think it's high time for a parallel program which could obviously be dubbed.... White Economic Empowerment (WEE). WEE BEE! Make it happ'n Jacob! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-07-24 20:10 |
| #5 PC, Political Correctness, is an abomination. When the pendulum begins its swing back to the Right, I hope the left are eviscerated (literally) because of all the evil wrought in the name of PC. I'd even like to see the so-called Leftist Elites subjected to a few nasty pogroms. But I'm funny that way. |
| Posted by: Grease Dark Lord of the Algonquins9226 2008-07-24 19:04 |
| #4 I blame THE MAN! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-07-24 17:23 |
| #3 Actually Dearth, it might have been the U.S. that broke the country with the South African Divestiture. It got the evil, nefarious, white devils out of power and the investment never came back. We were trying to be PC and we screwed everyone. |
| Posted by: sadfdfdddddddddddd 2008-07-24 16:16 |
| #2 Plus, whites have been severely affected by an all-out "affirmative action"; not only did the country go down the drain, but they were especially discriminated against in the so-called "rainbow country"... lower-middle class whites, who couldn't emigrate or held to management or professional jobs not thretened by "affirmative action" have had it VERY bad... that's why you've got a problem with white teen or pre-teen girls forced into prostitution and pimped by black transnational (notably nigerian) gangs like in that SA teevee show posted on Evil Youtube I linked to in an earlier comment, because there's a whole part of white society that had not only been left behind, but deliberately set to fall. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-07-24 15:38 |
| #1 Well, you break the economy with your communist ploys and don't be surprised when it effects everyone. Cause, meet effect. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-07-24 15:06 |