(Was it a careless speech or not) Zumas remarks taken out of context: Presidency President Jacob Zumas reported comments regarding e-tolling in Gauteng were taken out of context, the presidency said on Tuesday. The presidency has noted reports in certain media, suggesting that President Jacob Zuma insinuated that Africans were backward and that they should stop thinking like Africans in Africa and accept that Gauteng roads were not like some national road in Malawi or Pietermaritzburg or Rustenburg, spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement. The words have regrettably been taken out of context and blown completely out of proportion. Zuma was speaking at the Gauteng African National Congresss manifesto forum in Johannesburg on Monday night. In a clip on the EyeWitness News website Zuma is heard saying: We cant think like Africans, in Africa, generally. We are in Johannesburg, this is Johannesburg. Its not some national road in Malawi. Maharaj said Zuma was explaining that it was not fair to make the whole country pay for Gautengs roads. He said Zuma used an example by saying it was not fair to compare Gauteng roads to roads in other towns such as Pietermaritzburg, Rustenberg, Polokwane or any other town or national road in Malawi as this was Gauteng, the heartbeat of South Africas economy and an international city of commerce and business. The remarks were made in the broader context of South Africa achieving more in the past 19 years of freedom and democracy, Maharaj said. The ANC on Tuesday agreed with the presidency that Zumas comments had been taken out of context. The African National Congress welcomes the role played by traditional and social media in our national discourse, spokesman Jackson Mthembu said in a statement. It is important therefore that those privileged to form opinion on these networks do so with the intention of promoting fair and balanced reporting, a call we believe would not have arisen had the presidents comments been placed in context.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 20:55:55 +0000
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