Zuma hits out at Manuel

No fear No Favour No Apartheid..........................

 Trevor Manuel. Picture: Dudu Zitha

 (C) Billy Cox

Sabelo Ndlangisa @bhintsintsi

10 April 2013 15:45

President Jacob Zuma has given his Cabinet minister Trevor Manuel a tongue-lashing for saying the ANC government cannot blame apartheid for the country’s problems.

Speaking at an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination of SA Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani in Boksburg today, Zuma said the damage apartheid wrought was going to be “with us for some time”.

“(It) is impossible that within 20 years you could change the damage of centuries. The legacy of apartheid runs too deep and too far back for the democratic administration to reverse it in so short a period, unless you were a magician,” he said.

However, Zuma emphasised the need to ratchet up service delivery to improve the lot of poor people.

“As leaders and civil servants in this fourth administration we must work harder and faster and more efficiently to ensure that true freedom reaches the poor and the working class in a shorter time than apartheid and colonialism took to render them pariahs in the land of their birth,” he said.

Manuel, who is the minister in charge of the National Planning Commission in the presidency, last week told a civil summit that apartheid was no longer an excuse as the democratic government approached nearly two decades in power.

Manuel made the comments while Zuma was in Chad at a meeting to address the crisis in the Central African Republic last week.

Zuma said the damage of apartheid would linger beyond the current generation, saying “to suggest that we cannot blame apartheid for what is happening is in our country is a mistake, to say the least”. He cited social inequalities which he said rendered the country “two in one” and which were not created by the post-1994 government.

On Monday, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande was quoted in Sowetan taking issue with Manuel’s remarks.

Zuma said honouring Hani’s memory would be done through delivering a better life for all South Africans.

He said government had made huge strides in extending basic services such as water and electricity, and extending social welfare.

“We still face major challenges but the determination to find solutions remain high. And we have a plan such as the National Development Plan and action plans within it such as the new growth path to help us achieve decent jobs.

“As we mark the 19th year of freedom and democracy, we emphasise that leaders in government and public servants must work to improve the lives of the poor,” he said.

RELATED LINKS

• Hani would have played important role - ANC
• Apartheid: why Trevor is right
• My communist dad
• Manuel to blame for service-delivery problems – Nehawu
• Govt should stop blaming apartheid – Manuel

CITY PRESS

Govt should stop blaming apartheid – Manuel

3 April 2013 16:15

It is time for government to take responsibility for its actions, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel has said.

“We (government) should no longer say it’s apartheid’s fault,” Manuel told reporters at the government leadership summit in Pretoria today.

“We should get up every morning and recognise we have responsibility. There is no longer the Botha regime looking over our shoulder. We are responsible ourselves.”

Manuel said that in 1994, 1995, and 1996, government could perhaps have said “we don’t have the experience”, but as the country approached two decades of democracy this was no longer an excuse.

Government, led by the ANC, had served four terms.

“It is a privilege to serve four consecutive terms, and with that privilege comes responsibility.”

Manuel warned about the line between being a public servant and a politician becoming blurred.

“Almost without exception, public servants and we as ministers come from the same activist background, but what we must ensure is that even if we are members of the same political organisation, that is not carried into the workplace,” he said.

At the same time, work-related issues could not be resolved in the political space.

Manuel said government needed to make sure such lines were clear.

However, this was not the same as the debate around cadre deployment.

“I can say, without fear or contradiction, that I have never appointed a senior public representative who doesn’t share the same philosophical outlook, but that has not detracted us from dealing with matters in a very highly professional way,” he said.

The line was also blurred when a public representative interfered in procurement processes.

Manuel said if pressure was put on a public servant it was their responsibility to write to the minister of public service and administration and explain.

By dealing with these issues, it would help build a strong and capable public service.

- Sapa

RELATED LINKS

• Violence comes from apartheid – Zuma
• Zuma: Changes to land restitution won't result in chaos
• ANC will eliminate ‘alien tendencies’, apartheid
• ‘My job is kind of done’

CITY PRESS

 ....."The ideals he lived for are the ideals that inspire us as we relentlessly pursue the struggle."......

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu on former SACP leader Chris Hani

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COMMENTS BY SONNY

With all Manuel's shortcomings, he would have 

made a better president than Zuma, who is out of 

the country as much as Mbeki was!