| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| I'm fit to govern |
| 2007-11-25 |
| 25 November 2007 07:49. African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma is "ready" to be the country's president if asked to do so, the Sunday Times quoted him as saying. "If I am asked I will be ready for the task," he told a function for black businessmen in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Friday. In response to a question from a banker he said he was "fit to govern". At the meeting, Zuma articulated his policy views on a range of issues. He said the country is too soft on crime and that the police are not being paid enough. South Africa needs a ministry of law and order instead of safety and security because "we are not safe". "We need to put in place more laws that are not liberal and user-friendly for criminals," he reportedly said. Corruption is a "sickness of society" and the government should not be run through patronage. "You cannot run a country by using friends around you ... I wish in the not-too-distant future we can be in a position to deal with these matters head-on ... It [patronage] is corruption." The government has politicised HIV/Aids instead of dealing with the pandemic. "I feel we could have done more," he said. The ANC will be united "like never" before, irrespective of who becomes its next leader at the December conference. On the possibility of President Thabo Mbeki serving a third term, he said the matter of leaders overstaying their welcome cannot be ignored. "[Former president Nelson] Mandela did a wonderful thing by stepping down. But we didn't think there was a problem then. If it is left unattended, it will cause unnecessary problems." Earlier on Friday, Zuma told a meeting at Cape Town's Mitchells Plain that South Africans must speak up if they want the death penalty back. Asked whether he thought it was possible to sway the ANC into a rethink on the death penalty, he said it is an issue that was decided by the Constitutional Court, not the party. However, it is important, if the issue "keeps on coming", to know what South Africans feel about it "so that it can be addressed in the interests of all South Africans". He told the South African Press Association afterwards that he was not calling for the return of the death penalty, and emphasised again that the outlawing of capital punishment had been a Constitutional Court decision. "What I'm saying [is] if people feel like they are not happy with it, a way should be found," he said. "The people themselves must voice their views about the matter. If the population is not happy, then let the population tell us what needs to be done." Mind your seat belt if this lad becomes president. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |