Zuma: Remember pre-1994

2004-03-09 16:14

Pretoria - People criticising the African National Congress-led government for high levels of crime and unemployment under its rule disregarded the reality prior to 1994, deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.

Ten years ago crime was rife in South Africa, but nobody talked about it, he told reporters in Pretoria.

Nowadays, people made the mistake of thinking the country's crime problem started after 1994 "as if it came with democracy".

In truth, that perception arose from the post-1994 government's openness about the facts, Zuma said.

"We opened it up to say: 'Yes, there is crime, let's get a strategy to deal with it'."

While people blamed the government for rising unemployment, it had, in fact, managed to create about two million jobs in the past 10 years, he added.

But this was drowned out by population growth helped on by the large numbers of people streaming to South Africa after the relaxation of influx control measures.

Zuma called a briefing of the presidential press corps to elaborate on what he described as "the miracle" of South Africa's first 10 years of democracy.

Journalists should understand the positive changes to be able to report in a balanced manner on developments in the country, he said.

'Political kidnapping'

Part of South Africa's success could be measured by its involvement in efforts to resolve conflicts around the world, Zuma said.

In this regard, he reiterated South Africa's stance that elected governments could not be destabilised by force - as in Haiti.

That country's president Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned on February 29 and left Haiti for the Central African Republic amid violent protests against his government.

Aristide described his departure as a "political kidnapping", a charge denied by the United States. But the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom) has called for an international investigation.

South Africa has also expressed "deep concern regarding ... circumstances that led to the departure of a democratically-elected president".

Zuma said Caricom had consulted Mbeki on the matter. Talks were continuing between the South African government, Caricom, the United Nations and the African Union "on the issue of how he was taken out".

"It would be a mistake for the world to accept a situation where a democratically-elected state is overthrown by people who do not agree with it."

South Africa had received no official application for asylum from Aristide to date, Zuma said.

- SAPA