Zuma slams lazy South Africans

President Jacob Zuma yesterday deviated from his prepared speech and lambasted South Africans, saying they are too lazy to even pick a mango from a tree.

Zuma said if he were a dictator, he would make everybody understand that rights go with responsibilities. This is the second time in the last six months Zuma has called South Africans lazy.

In October last year, speaking at the commemoration of Black Wednesday and 20 years of media freedom in South Africa, he said: “Our people are waiting for government. Our people are not used to standing up and doing things. These ones [foreigners] are not expecting any government to do anything, so they get here, see opportunities and exploit them.”

If he were a journalist, he would write to South Africans to say “wake up”, he said at the time. Yesterday, while addressing delegates at the South African Local Government Association national members assembly at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Zuma said at times he worries when people demand everything, even things they can do themselves.

“If I were a dictator, I would change a few things. For example, I would say to the family ‘you need a house, here is the material’. “Build your house, that’s what I would say.” He said people were too lazy to build houses and only swear at the government.

“If you just close your eyes for a year and vote me a dictator, I would change these things,” Zuma said.