{"id":158313,"date":"2017-02-16T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=158313"},"modified":"2017-02-16T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:56:14","slug":"we-dont-hate-whites-were-just-stating-facts-zuma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/158313\/we-dont-hate-whites-were-just-stating-facts-zuma\/","title":{"rendered":"We don’t hate whites, we’re just stating facts: Zuma"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Jacob Zuma has responded to FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald who asked <\/a><\/strong>Zuma why he continually \u201cblamed white people\u201d for the problems in the country.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the official State of the Nation Debate\u00a0in parliament on Wednesday (16 February)\u00a0Groenewald\u00a0asked the following of Zuma:<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Zuma: what have you got against white people in South Africa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are using white people as a scapegoat to hide your inability as a government. If you want economic growth, put a moratorium on all black economic empowerment policies and affirmative action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groenewald’s main gripe was with the portion of Zuma’s SONA, where he addressed the need for land reform, noting that most of the land in South Africa – especially that which can be used commercially – is in the hands of the few, pointing to the white minority.<\/p>\n

In his SONA reply on Thursday, Zuma gave\u00a0an official response to Groenewald, saying \u201cwe (the ANC) don\u2019t hate whites, we\u2019re just stating facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not pointing at the colour, we\u2019re describing the situation. If this is not resolved, it could explode one day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be wise to disabuse yourself from the tendency that when we talk about land and those who own land; you think it\u2019s because of hatred.”<\/p>\n

“Saying we hate whites won\u2019t make us stop talking about the land issue,\u201d he said. \u00a0Unlike other countries, South Africa would use the constitution to address the issue.<\/p>\n

“Let\u2019s just find a formula to rectify the problem. We all need enough space to live together. This is not racialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president went on to say that radical economic transformation, of which affirmative action and BEE form a part, are part of healing the divisions of the past.<\/p>\n

“White compatriots will be part of this process as it will assist us to achieve a truly united, non-racial and prosperous society,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0\u2018President Zuma: what have you got against white people?\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Jacob Zuma has responded to FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald who asked Zuma why he continually \u201cblamed white people\u201d for the problems in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":106747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-158313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158313"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158329,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158313\/revisions\/158329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}