\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"nm](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/19246_957200064.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
INLSA<\/p>\n
President Jacob Zuma addresses traditional leaders in Parliaments old assembly chamber yesterday. Listening are Vusi Madonsela, left back, director-general of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, and ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga. \tPicture: Jeffrey Abrahams<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Babalo Ndenze <\/p>\n
Political Bureau<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has described statements that the country\u2019s inequality gap was widening as a \u201cfarce\u201d, and said South Africans should stop falling for the \u201cpropaganda\u201d and \u201cspin\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cNotions that the gap between the rich and poor in South Africa is widening is a farce. Why now, after 1994, do we say it\u2019s widening?\u201d asked Zuma. <\/p>\n Delivering his annual address to the National House of Traditional Leaders, at Parliament, he said that during apartheid black people in rural areas had not even been counted by the government. <\/p>\n \u201cA huge population wasn\u2019t counted. It was pushed into the homelands and many didn\u2019t even have birth certificates. Only in 1994 did we remove restriction and let rural people move to urban areas. That\u2019s why there\u2019s no place to stay [in urban areas]. <\/p>\n \u201cThe inequality gap is not growing since 1994, it\u2019s narrowing. In pre-1994, there were no black businesses. There were only corner shops and perhaps some butchery. Poverty was worse than what it is now,\u201d said Zuma. <\/p>\n He said the \u201cspin\u201d had increased since 1994. <\/p>\n Taking a swipe at the media, Zuma said: \u201cPeople writing newspapers are educated and they think they\u2019re writing the truth. It\u2019s propaganda, and we also repeat it, nathi<\/em> [us], because it is being said by educated people.\u201d <\/p>\n But DA finance spokesman Tim Harris said Zuma was in denial about the inequality gap. <\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is\u2026 that the latest available statistics on income inequality show that overall inequality has grown steadily,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cOur economy has become characterised by \u2018insiders\u2019 who have jobs, homes and the prospect of rising incomes, and \u2018outsiders\u2019 who do not participate in the economic mainstream.\u201d <\/p>\n Harris said experts put the blame for widening inequality on \u201can underperforming education system, the resultant skills shortages, and the government\u2019s failure to create an enabling environment for job-intensive growth\u201d. <\/p>\n Harris said that despite Zuma\u2019s \u201cbest attempts to dispel the facts\u201d, the gap between the haves and have-nots had increased consistently under ANC leadership. <\/p>\n He quoted World Bank lead economist for South Africa, Sandeep Mahajan, as saying: \u201cSouth Africa is a complete global outlier in terms of its inequality and how inequality has been persistent over time.\u201d <\/p>\n Zuma also denied the Marikana massacre was a sign South Africa was becoming a repressive state similar to that under apartheid, saying such incidents had been a \u201cdaily occurrence\u201d during apartheid, and that the massacre could not be compared to what had happened before 1994. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople were being killed left, right and centre. There was no one to stop it.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Zuma said the Marikana inquiry was working to establish what happened on August 16, \u201cso we can prevent similar tragic incidents in future in our beautiful country\u201d. \t8<\/strong>PBR <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA President Jacob Zuma addresses traditional leaders in Parliaments old assembly chamber yesterday. Listening are Vusi Madonsela, left back, director-general of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, and ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga. Picture: Jeffrey Abrahams Babalo Ndenze Political Bureau PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has described statements that the country\u2019s inequality gap was widening as a \u201cfarce\u201d, […]<\/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":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-16121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","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\/16121","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=16121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}