South African President Jacob Zuma is such a controversial figure in his country that his every utterance can be blown up to scandal proportions. Take for instance some joking, off-the-cuff comments he made about the difference between white people and black people regarding dog ownership, which critics have used to blast him as racially insensitive.
Zuma gave a speech in KwaZulu-Natal during which he said that spending money to buy a dog and taking it to the vet and for walks belonged to “white” culture, according to a story in yesterday’s Star newspaper. Perhaps anticipating the backlash, the office of the presidency later issued a statement trying to clarify, saying Zuma was only trying to “decolonize the African mind.”
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said that Zuma wanted “to enable the previously oppressed African majority to appreciate and love who they are.”
But ANC Chief Whip Mathole Motshekga said in his own statement that the response to Zuma’s comments only served to illustrate the animosity many in South Africa have for him.
“Only those harbouring prejudices and hostility would have us believe that this president will take a break from holidays just to address the community about dogs,” said ANC Chief Whip in a statement.
Motshekga said that some of the people who harboured “deep-seated anti-Zuma prejudices” included people in the media and certain political commentators.
Motshekga said he hoped that when the media “hype” died down, South Africans would then focus on “the issues of race relations, national pride, national identity, culture and Ubuntu that the President so eloquently spoke about.”
But the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) said that a love of animals was not defined by race.
“There is no doubt that black Africans love their dogs and animals,” said the NSPCA in a statement.
The NSPCA took a thinly veiled shot at Zuma’s leadership by comparing him unfavorably to Nelson Mandela, saying it was proud that former president Mandela was a patron.
Zuma last week easily won reelection to be the leader of the African National Congress at the ANC’s five-day conference in Bloemfontein.
Of the nearly 4,000 votes cast, Zuma received 2983 votes while his challenger, deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe, received 991 votes.
The results mean that Zuma is virtually certain to be reelected as the nation’s president in 2014, as the leader of the governing party is customarily chosen as president—though it’s not required by law.
Even after his reelection, the problems facing Zuma are considerable: Many blacks expected that the end of apartheid would bring them more economic opportunity, yet the majority of them remain overwhelmingly poor two decades after apartheid ended—while the politicians and the elite get richer. But perhaps no period has been rockier for Zuma than the last three months, when a massacre of 34 striking miners by police resulted in months of devastating strikes that shut down the mining industry and led to months of violent unrest that dragged down the nation’s economy, damaging the country’s image with investors and leading to a downgrade by credit ratings agencies. In addition, there are many questions about millions of dollars of government-paid improvements made at Zuma’s private home.
