Zuma: I'm fit to govern

2007-11-24 22:49

Johannesburg - ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma is "ready" to be the country's president if asked to do so, the Sunday Times quoted him as saying.

"If I am asked I will be ready for the task," he told a function for black businessmen in Sandton, Johannesburg on Friday.

In response to a question from a banker he said he was "fit to govern".

At the meeting Zuma articulated his policy views on a range of issues. He said the country was too soft on crime and that the police were not being paid enough. South Africa needed a ministry of law and order instead of safety and security because "we are not safe".

"We need to put in place more laws that are not liberal and user-friendly for criminals," he reportedly said.

Corruption was a "sickness of society" and the government should not be run through patronage.

"You cannot run a country by using friends around you... I wish in the not-too-distant future we can be in a position to deal with these matters head-on... It is corruption."

The government had politicised HIV/Aids instead of dealing with the pandemic.

"I feel we could have done more," he said.

The ANC would be united "like never" before, irrespective of who became its next leader at the December conference.

On the possibility of President Thabo Mbeki serving a third term, he said the matter of leaders overstaying their welcome could not be ignored.

"Former president Nelson Mandela did a wonderful thing by stepping down. But we didn't think there was a problem then. If it is left unattended, it will cause unnecessary problems."

Earlier on Friday Zuma told a meeting in Cape Town's Mitchell's Plain that he would consider bringing back the death penalty if a referendum indicated that this was what South Africans wanted, the Sunday Times reported.

- SAPA