The DA’s Lindiwe Mazibuko was part of the panel that criticised President Jacob Zuma State of the Nation address.
|||The ANC’s Chief Whip Dr Mathole Motshekga has defended Jacob Zuma’s call for a review of the Constitutional Court’s powers, saying the president would be first to sacrifice his life for the constitution.
Motshekga was speaking at the Mail & Guardian’s Critical Thinking Forum held in Cape Town to discuss the State of the Nation address on Wednesday night.
The panel included IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota and UDM leader Bantu Holomisa.
Answering the moderator Richard Calland’s question on Zuma’s comments regarding the Constitutional Court, Motshekga stressed that what Zuma was referring to was a societal matter.
“When you have a dynamic constitution questions arise and people ask if the government governs at the pleasure of the judiciary…” he said.
On the president’s address, Buthelezi reiterated he was “struck by the lack of accountability for mistakes made in the last two years”.
“We have failed on education, health care and corruption, which is a greater challenge. We saw the axing of two ministers, we all applauded,” he said.
Holomisa said the media had been assisting “the nation by revealing what is happening in the country, but action to punish is not forthcoming”.
“Zuma had to sacrifice those two (ministers) to gain lost ground. There is institutionalised corruption under the ANC government,” he said.
Holomisa called for a second Codesa on the economy to address the economic emancipation of the majority in the country.
Later asked if the government was fit for purpose Lekota told the audience that he had been kicked out of the premier’s office in the Free State for reporting the corrupt activities of one of the province’s MECs.
“
Liberation movements were never formed to govern. You must have a party that recruits skills. You can’t govern purely with people who were loyal in the past, but with people who are skilled,” he said. “If you have people who can’t make money, you can’t allow them to look after money.”
Mazibuko said the president’ Sona speech did not go far enough because it did not address various issues including policy and legislative matters, in a comprehensive way.
“The president outlined a strategy to increase infrastructure. He did not talk about how government would create an economic strategy, clean up government, better service delivery, education and create a competitive economy…” she said.
Motshekga said the ANC government was making progress by addressing “failures of pre-1994 government and in the Eastern Cape the legacies of apartheid, the homeland rule of Holomisa and Matanzima”.
“When people talk of corruption, there are two players – the corrupter and corruptee. Most involve civil servants and business. The civil service is not the ANC. Civil service corruption is societal,” he said.
sibusiso.nkomo@inl.co.za - Cape Argus