Despite having gone in the firing line himself a number of times, African National Congress leader, Jacob Zuma disputed the fact that his party is the main cause of corruption and moved to assure those members of his party that had attended the party’s 103rd celebrations in Cape Town that his party was truly committed to fighting this scourge.
Jacob Zuma was addressing more than forty thousand people,who had attended the rally that his government was committed to fighting the scourge that was corruption. He devoted most of his speech to speaking about what his government had done in its attempt to fighting it. In particular, he brought the attention of those that attended the gathering that the public service sector needed to up its game as regards the struggle against corruption. He called on the cadres in his party to focus on continuing to lead in the fight against corruption, which he said had eaten the fabric of our society and was constraining economic growth. President Jacob Zuma admitted in his speech that corruption was at all levels that is, the public sector, private sector as well as within the African National Congress itself.
President Zuma also spent some time in his speech on the question of energy, which attracted a lot of interest, particularly in an age when Eskom was struggling in keeping the energy requirements of the country well supplied. He told the gathering that his government was committed to diversifying into nuclear, gas and renewable energy to supplement the electricity which was mainly obtained from coal. He added that his party had put the question of energy at the very top of its list of priorities for the year.
Another area of interest in Jacob Zuma’s address was the part when he spoke about land. He said that his party was looking at enacting a law which would allow his government to return the land to the majority of his people. He attributed this to the failure of the concept of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’, which he said had taken too long and had unsatisfactory results. He promised that his party would push to ensure that legislation to this effect was passed during this year.