{"id":14802,"date":"2012-09-20T04:39:48","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T02:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/interview-south-africas-zuma-i-am-with-the-people\/"},"modified":"2012-09-20T04:39:48","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T02:39:48","slug":"interview-south-africas-zuma-i-am-with-the-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/interview-south-africas-zuma-i-am-with-the-people\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW-South Africa’s Zuma: "I am with the people""},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* President dismisses charge of being out of touch<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Says populist opponent Malema ‘has no influence’<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Zuma predicts smooth party leadership contest<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

By Luke Baker<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

BRUSSELS, Sept 19 (Reuters) – South African President Jacob
\nZuma dismissed critics who accuse him of being out of touch with
\nthe people and brushed aside one of his most vocal opponents,
\nsaying populist rival Julius Malema had no influence and was
\n“just talk”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with the European
\nUnion, shortly after a deal was struck to end a six-week strike
\nat South Africa’s Marikana platinum mine, Zuma laughed when
\nasked how he responds to those who say he has lost touch with
\nthe roots of the African National Congress and its voters.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“They are actually wrong,” he said in an interview at his
\nhotel in Brussels late on Tuesday. “I am with the people on a
\ncontinuous basis in huge meetings. Those people are really just
\ntelling what they think without looking at the facts. I am very
\nmuch in touch with the people.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Zuma has been accused of being slow to react to the Marikana
\nstrike, even after the killing of 45 people, including 34 miners
\nshot dead by police. He visited the site shortly after the Aug.
\n16 shootings, but stayed only briefly and then went to dance at
\nan ANC event, despite having declared a week of mourning.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked if he had more affinity with the mineworkers or with
\nCyril Ramaphosa, a wealthy businessman and board member of
\nLonmin Plc , the owner of the Marikana mine,
\nZuma defended his relationship with the former union activist
\nwho is now worth an estimated $275 million.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* President dismisses charge of being out of touch * Says populist opponent Malema ‘has no influence’ * Zuma predicts smooth party leadership contest By Luke Baker BRUSSELS, Sept 19 (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma dismissed critics who accuse him of being out of touch with the people and brushed aside one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}