The ‘wooden’ speech by South African Presiden, Jacob Zuma has come in for a lot of negative comments in the media – unfair in a way as his speech is being compared to that of one of the world’s greatest orators, Barrack Obama.
But, in a dancing and singing contest Zuma is still tops – see the 3 videos below:
http://youtu.be/6fzRSE_p1Ys
President Jacob Zuma sings “Kill the Boer” at ANC Centenery Celebrations in Bloemfontein, South Africa in January 2012.
Barack Obama said that Nelson Mandela “makes me want to be a better man” at his memorial service in Johannesburg. As well as hailing the late President, Obama also used the opportunity to chide other world leaders who he said claimed solidarity with Mandela’s struggle for freedom “but do not tolerate dissent from their own people… There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality.” He made the comment in front of an audience of leaders that included Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, Cuban President Raul Castro and Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe.
Following his speech, he then shook the hand of Cuban President Raul Castro, a rare gesture between the leaders of two nations at loggerheads for more than half a century. Relations between Cuba and the US have been frozen since soon after Cuba’s 1959 revolution led by Raul’s brother Fidel Castro. Report by Sophie Foster.
South African President Jacob Zuma was booed as he prepared to speak at the memorial to Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium. As President Zuma took to the stage he faced an unruly crowd and ceremony organisers cut in with a choir to drown out the hostile reaction. Mandela’s death on Thursday has diverted attention from a slew of corruption scandals in Zuma’s administration, while underscoring the gulf between South Africa’s first black president, a towering figure of the 20th century, and its fourth. Zuma’s reception was a marked contrast to the rock-star welcome for Obama, one of about 90 world leaders bidding farewell to Mandela in Johannesburg. Report by Sarah Johnston.
Alan Straton
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