Publications
Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma on Monday said a picture of a Mozambican national being stabbed to death in Alexandra, published on the front page of the Sunday Times was an appalling sight.
"Terrible picture... I am sure even people who live in very rough townships or areas have never seen such a scene generally," Zuma told reporters at a briefing at Luthuli House in Johannesburg.
"And I was sitting and I was saying to myself: What are we telling the world about ourselves?" Zuma said.
The Sunday Times published a series of pictures of Emmanuel Sithole being stabbed by three men. He later died in hospital.
Three men had since been arrested in connection with Sithole's murder and were scheduled to appear in the Alexandra Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.Zuma said the attack on foreigners also resulted from the fact that the
country's citizens did not know how the country gained democracy.
"Perhaps we might be the more guilty on that one," Zuma said,
referring to struggle fighters.
"[The nation needs to know] what it is that we underwent, who supported us in what way," he said.
"We did not explain sufficiently so that people can understand we came from a very ugly past which we put behind us," Zuma said.
He has condemned the attacks on foreign nationals.
Addressing foreigners at a refugee camp in Durban at the weekend, he said: "“We are not saying to you go away as government. It is yourselves who are saying that you need to be helped to go home,” he said.
Several held signs up as Zuma spoke./p>
One read: “We better go home. Thank U King and Zuma’s Son”, while another read: “We have to go home. Malawi is peace and harmony”.
Another read: “We are South Africans Enemies.”
Julia Maphumo, a Zimbabwean from Harare, said afterwards that it did not matter what Zuma said, she wanted to go home.
