The lack of basic good manners cannot be whitewashed because ‘this is Africa’

Zuma
Jacob Zuma

Sometimes one just has to marvel at the complete lack of basic decorum and good manners you find with the South African government. Now, Zuma, you cannot really blame. We believed he had at least a standard 5 qualification for a long time, until we heard that he probably passed only standard 3. After that he struggled and he Communistezed and he terrorized and heaven knows what else he commited and he went to jail and he became a politician and because this is Africa, he became a president. And I expect we are going to be stuck with him for years to come.

So where was he ever supposed to learn etiquette? But there are people, more educated and with more decorum, who should really help the man out. Make him understand that the lack of basic good manners cannot be whitewashed because “this is Africa”. The ANC government’s shameful (or shameless, depending on how you look at it) behaviour rubs off on all South Africans. And I for one, do not tolerate a lack of grace, decorum and etiquette.

I am talking about the insult to the rest of the world. The diplomatic slap in the face of a number of countries, who has done nothing but invest and support Zuma in all his endeavours. But like the typical African beggar who would stand with his hands cupped for alms and then curse at you behind your back, just to return for some more tomorrow morning, Zuma also insults other countries and then expect them to support his government. I have a feeling their patience is running out.

1) Zuma insulted the United Kingdom. He kept quiet when a statue of Cecil John Rhodes was removed, when monuments to King George V and Queen Victoria were desecrated and vandalised, when a statue of a British soldier was set ablaze and another of a British Horseman was damaged. He did not condemn it. In fact, in a blatant diplomatic blunder, he received the outspoken enemy of the UK, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (probably the worst leader in African history, including Idi Amin and Jean Bedel Bocasa) as his guest in the time when all of this was happening in our country. Thereby he belittled our former Rhodesian countrymen as well as the UK. If that is not adding insult to injury, I don’t know what is. Therefore we ask the people and government of the UK: Stop supporting this man and his government We are ashamed of them.

2) Zuma insulted India, his economic partner in the BRICS group. When a statue of Mohandas Gandhi was vandalised, he said nothing. The man who was the father of peaceful resistance against oppression, the man who was the conscience of a nation and the father of his country…when his memory was belittled, Zuma did not condemn it. When the xenophobic attacks in Durban started, committed by the Zulu people (Zuma’s own tribe) and fuelled by the expressions of hatespeech by Zuma’s own son and the by the Zulu King, Zuma unconvincingly condemned it. But it was Indian people who were hacked with machetes – Hindu people who contributed more to this country’s economy in the 150 years of their presence here, than what the entire Zulu nation did since time immemorial. Therefore we ask the people and government of India: Stop supporting this man and his government. We are ashamed of them.

3) Zuma insulted Portugal. When a statue of the South African born Portugese poet and literary giant, Fernando Pesoa, was vandalised, Zuma said nothing. He did not apologise. Pesoa, who is regarded in Portugal on the same level as Walt Whitman in America or Alfred Lord Tennyson in England was vandalised. But Zuma would not care about our Portuguese community, because they are Europeans and therefore he does not care about insulting Portugal. Therefore we ask the people and government of Portugal: Stop supporting this man and his government. We are ashamed of them.

4) Zuma insulted the Netherlands. The statues of Jan and Maria van Riebeeck in Cape Town was a gift to the people of South Africa by the Dutch people and unveiled there by the late prince Bernhard, grandfather of the current Dutch King. Those statues, the city in which they stand, the roads leading there… that was a result of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in 1652 at the height of the Dutch Golden Century. And in January this year Zuma insulted the Dutch people by saying that it was this act which is the root cause of all the problems in this country. The Dutch, who supported his “struggle” against apartheid are now only good enough to be insulted. Therefore we ask the people and the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Stop supporting this man and his government. We are ashamed of them.

Indeed, let the civilised world take note of our shame and let their conscience speak out against the root of this shame…this racist, corrupt, oppressive and disgraceful group of people called a government. And of Jacob Zuma, who cares not in the least who he insults along his way leading us into the abyss.

Daniel Lötter – Dept Information
Front National

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