Zuma To Leave Power With No Economic Legacy

There is a common saying that you reap what you sow; others say what goes around comes around and for Jacob Zuma it has come full circle. He was a one time at the helm of those spearheading the ouster of then South African President Thabo Mbeki. Now in 2018, forces in the ruling African National congress (ANC) are keen to push Mr. Zuma out and usher in the new party President Cyril Ramaphosa just as they did in 2008.

When Zuma came to power there were murmurs in the western media that Zuma was a populist who would ruin the South African economy. At the end of apartheid, 31.5 million Africans lived in South Africa. 3.5 million were bi-racial, also known in South Africa as ‘Coloureds’ and 5 million were white colonialists from Europe.

To keep black South Africans subjugated, western funded idealists introduced the concept of a ‘Rainbow Nation’ which distracted Africans from repossessing what was stolen from them.

The apartheid Nazi regime introduced racism which is the institutionalized systematic subjugation of Africans by the Europeans who by now called themselves Boers. The results of their racist apartheid policy were as follows:

• Europeans were 13% of population but owned 90% of the wealth
• Europeans owned 100% all the diamond and gold mines
• Europeans owned 100% of the most productive land for agriculture
• Africans could not own any natural resources
• African salaries were less than 30% of Boer salaries
• African unemployment 8 times that of the Boers
• During apartheid all government , army jobs were reserved for Boers only

At the end of the Zuma presidency, there has been very little progress for  here is the economic report card:

• Europeans still own almost 100% of all the diamond and gold mines
• Europeans still own 80% of the land
• The median income of Africans is R2,600 vs R10,500 for Europeans in 2013
• 46.5% or 30.4 million Africans of  South Africans live in poverty
• Africans own only 23% of shares traded in stock market in SA
• 16 million South Africans were relying on social assistance by 2014
• Over 29% unemployment rate among Africans
• Africans with university degrees are 3 times more likely than Europeans to be unemployed
• According to Department of Trade, Africans own only 3% of the South African economy

Zuma’s disease to please and appease has left him a total loser with no legacy. Instead, he is riddled by corruption allegations and with the possibility of imprisonment. He did not stand up for Africans and he will be relegated to the footnote of history with no achievements except to  be remembered as the corrupt politician who murdered his own innocent people at Marikana when all they wanted was a livable wage.

Sources:

Washington Post

UNDP – The Impact of Social & Economic Inequality on Economic Development in South Africa 2014

Enca.com