{"id":48068,"date":"2013-10-22T15:34:12","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T13:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=48068"},"modified":"2013-10-23T09:44:16","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T07:44:16","slug":"presidency-clarifies-zumas-e-tolling-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/48068\/presidency-clarifies-zumas-e-tolling-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidency clarifies Zuma e-toll comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Jacob Zuma<\/a>\u2019s reported comments regarding e-tolling in Gauteng were taken out of context, the presidency said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presidency has noted reports in certain media, suggesting that President Jacob Zuma insinuated that Africans were backward and that they should stop thinking like \u2018Africans in Africa and accept that Gauteng roads were not like some national road in Malawi or Pietermaritzburg or Rustenburg\u2019,\u201d spokesman Mac Maharaj<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe words have regrettably been taken out of context and blown completely out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zuma was speaking at the Gauteng African National Congress<\/a>\u2019s manifesto forum in Johannesburg on Monday night.<\/p>\n

In a clip on the EyeWitness News website Zuma is heard saying: \u201cWe can\u2019t think like Africans, in Africa, generally. We are in Johannesburg, this is Johannesburg. It\u2019s not some national road in Malawi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maharaj said Zuma was explaining that it was not fair to make the whole country pay for Gauteng\u2019s roads.<\/p>\n

He said Zuma used an example by saying it was not fair to compare Gauteng roads to roads in other towns such as \u201cPietermaritzburg, Rustenberg, Polokwane or any other town or national road in Malawi as this was Gauteng, the heartbeat of South Africa\u2019s economy and an international city of commerce and business\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe remarks were made in the broader context of South Africa achieving more in the past 19 years of freedom and democracy,\u201d Maharaj said.<\/p>\n

The ANC on Tuesday agreed with the presidency that Zuma\u2019s comments had been taken out of context.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe African National Congress welcomes the role played by traditional and social media in our national discourse,\u201d spokesman Jackson Mthembu<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important therefore that those privileged to form opinion on these networks do so with the intention of promoting fair and balanced reporting, a call we believe would not have arisen had the president\u2019s comments been placed in context.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Jacob Zuma<\/h3>\n

Zuma must withdraw e-toll comment: DA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

E-toll courts proposal a \u201cslap in the face\u201d for SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0E-toll: the hidden costs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Fight against e-tolls now up to people of Gauteng: DA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Outa\u2019s e-toll case dismissed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Jacob Zuma\u2019s reported comments regarding e-tolling in Gauteng were taken out of context, the presidency said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1875,26,83,5151],"class_list":["post-48068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-anc","tag-headline","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-mac-maharaj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48068","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48068"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48110,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48068\/revisions\/48110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}