By Anna Majavu

23 August 2010

Zuma spoke yesterday to about 300 people at the Glendale Secondary School in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. He said in the past, nurses and doctors would have been allowed to cross “picket lines” to treat critical cases.

“Even if we went on strike, the values we had were that we cannot touch essential services. The problem today is that if someone today would die, we are not worried,” Zuma said.

He indicated that he would not treat striking public servants sympathetically.

“Sectoral interests cannot compete with national interests. Government must be able to protect people. You cannot do things that will make people feel we have no future,” Zuma said.

He also criticised the media, saying that it represented business and not the voices of the poor majority of South Africans.

He also hit out against leadership tussles within the ANC. “Are some of us intoxicated by power? Are some of us living to become chairperson of the branch or president of the ANC?,” he said.

Zuma advised the ANC members not to start before the Annual General Meeting to go around with the names. “If you do so, you are corrupting the internal democracy of the ANC.”

He promised to uplift the one million residents of Mitchells Plain.

“This area is poverty-stricken,” he said, promising to make the area a priority.

Source: http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/