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Tutu doesn't relish Zuma presidency |
| Publication |
Cape Times |
| Date | 2009-04-02 |
| Reporter | Nathi Olifant |
| Web Link | www.capetimes.co.za |
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu accelerated his attack on ANC President Jacob
Zuma on Wednesday night, saying he did not look forward to having him as his
president.
Tutu said if Zuma was innocent of the fraud and other charges he faces, he
should prove this in court.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner was speaking at a Diakonia Council of Churches
function at the Durban City Hall.
He said he liked Zuma for his warm and friendly manner.
However, in the year that Barack Obama took office as US president, he would be
ashamed to walk in New York and state who his president was, if it was Zuma.
"If he is innocent, as he claims, he must let the courts prove it," he said.
What started as a warm sermon-cum-motivational talk sharply changed tenor as
Tutu took issue with the government on several matters.
He again hit out at the denial of a visa to the Dalai Lama, the release of
fraudster Schabir Shaik and the slack and unprofessional manner in which public
servants conducted themselves.
He also criticised ANC members who had carried convicted former chief whip Tony
Yengeni to Pollsmoor Prison to begin serving his sentence.
"It's becoming very difficult to condemn (the government) as this would make one
appear unpatriotic. We are in a bad place at the moment in this country. We have
let our guard down and we have quickly forgotten the struggles of our past,"
said Tutu.
"I'm very fond of Yengeni too, but are our standards that low?" he asked,
eliciting laughter from the audience.
Tutu then reprimanded the audience: "This is no laughing matter; it's as if they
are telling us to go to hell if we dare to differ. Is this why people were
tortured and killed?" he asked.
Tutu further lambasted the government for refusing to set up a judicial
commission of inquiry into the arms deal and bemoaned the dissolution of the
Scorpions.
"If there was nothing wrong, why refuse the establishment of a commission?
Please allow us old people to go to the grave smiling," he said.
With acknowledgements to
Nathi Olifant and Cape Times.