President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken issues with former president Thabo Mbeki’s recent remarks in which he blamed his government for having no plans to resolve South Africa’s current problems.
Addressing a memorial service for the late ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte in Johannesburg last week, Mbeki warned that it was a matter of time before things broke loose and South Africa experiences “an Arab spring”.
Mbeki said “there is no national plan to these challenges of poverty, unemployment, (and) inequality.”
“We must address local government. You’ve seen all of these reports from the Auditor General that always come out and point a finger at the councils, particularly which are led by the ANC,” Mbeki said.
He added: “What message are we communicating to these masses? One of my fears is that one of these days, we’re going to have our own version of the Arab Spring.”
Speaking at the ANC KwaZulu Natal provincial elective conference on Sunday night, Ramaphosa said “while we all agree that our overriding objectives are to grow the economy, create jobs, and reduce poverty and inequality, we must remember that the problems and challenge of jobs did not start yesterday or two years ago.”
“We have lived with these problems for a number of years and we’ve been involved, among the social partners, on finding or creating steps that we need to take to address them through a social compact,” Ramaphosa said.
Meanwhile, the provincial conference has elected Sboniso Duma as the new provincial chairman, defeating Sihle Zikalala who took over from Senzo Mchunu in 2015.
NM/jn/APA