ZUMA'S DISDAINFUL REMARKS ABOUT AFRICANS SMACKS OF XENOPHOBIA AND SELF HATE

22 October 2013

During his address to an audience at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg on Monday, the 21st of October 2013, Mr. Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa scornfully said to the audience that "don't be like Africans and think like Africans". In a feeble attempt to justify the sick decision of approving eTolls and privatising public roads in Gauteng, Mr. Zuma further said that Johannesburg roads are not like some highway in Malawi (see Daily Maverick report). 

In doing so, Mr. Zuma has just proven to the people of South Africa, African continent and the world that he does not have respect for Africans and holds the Eurocentric stereotypes commonly repeated about Africans in certain cycles. How on earth can a sitting President deride Africans and speak of Africans as if they are inherently disorderly and unable to maintain their own infrastructure? How on earth can a sitting President of South AFRICA speak of Africans as a bunch of irresponsible people somewhere outside the continent which South AFRICA is not part of?

What the remarks by Mr. Zuma reflect is not the state of 'Africans in Africa', but the state of his mind, which clearly remains colonised and controlled by dictates of white supremacy and Afro-pessimism. Instead of giving hope to the African continent and governments, Mr. Zuma chooses to make deriding and undermining remarks about Africans. 

The remarks by Mr. Zuma are a reflection of Xenophobia against Africans, in that he tries to deride and scornfully refer to Africans in Africa as people who are not responsible. Mr. Zuma suffers from self-hate and trying to define Johannesburg and South Africa outside the African continent. These are attributes which Founding Fathers of Africa's liberation have taught many generations to disdain, yet Mr. Zuma is still stuck in the colonial mentality that we are not one people and that South Africa is better and more superior than other African people and nations. 

EFF believes that it is treachery for a sitting President of South AFRICA to publicly repeat the many stereotypes about Africans and how they are incapable of preserving their infrastructure and maintaining the countries. We believe it is treachery and irresponsible because such stereotypes fail to locate the developmental problems Africa has on the role of neo-colonial, imperialist and dominant nations which rape Africa of its natural resources, damage its infrastructure with huge trucks that steal Africa's resources, and leave nothing for the maintenance of such Infrastructure. 

Mr. Zuma fails a simple task of comprehending a simple fact that Africa's problems are consequent of continued neo-colonial control and looting by the foreigners to our continent. This is a factor EFF addresses in its Founding Manifesto, and the reason why one of our non-negotiable 7 cardinal pillars commit to the development of the African economy. 

South Africans and Africans as a whole should begin to appreciate that the country and continent do not have a genuine leader, and Progressive Africanist in Mr. Zuma. He is and continues to be a colonial subject who continues to trump and repeat the many stereotypes about the African continent and behaves like he is not of African origins. 

EFF's political and ideological commitment is to the development of the African continent and economy and we will dismiss with contempt any attempts to deride our continent. South Africa needs real leaders who will understand and appreciate that our development and growth is linked to the development of the entire African continent and economy.

EFF is now the only hope for the people of South Africa and the African continent. Let us all reject problematic insinuations that 'Africans in Africa' cannot think and are unable to take care of their own affairs. Let us develop common consciousness to develop our continent and rid it of neo-colonial mentality and ideas that define Mr. Zuma. EFF seeks to ideologically emancipate mental slaves like Mr. Zuma who are still trapped in colonial mentality and view of life.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, October 22 2013

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter