“If those who, whoever they are, they hate me for it, I have no problem with that. They hate me for what I decided at a young age to join the struggle for,” President Zuma said.
He was adamant that radical transformation is the only way to address the twin problems of poverty and land dispossession.
In a recent interview, President Zuma said poverty was caused by land dispossession, and the only way to fix it is through radical economic transformation.
The president, who is under immense pressure to step down after his recent Cabinet reshuffle in which he replaced Pravin Gordhan with Malusi Gigaba as finance minister, said he was unapologetic about addressing the issue of land, despite the opposition he faces about it.
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Zuma said poverty and the land issue were some of the main reasons he joined the struggle.
Zuma observed in his State of the Nation address: “Twenty-two years into our freedom and democracy, the majority of black people are still economically disempowered … the gap between the annual average household incomes of African-headed households and their white counterparts remains shockingly huge.
White households earn at least five times more than black households, according to Statistics South Africa.
The situation with regards to the ownership of the economy also mirrors that of household incomes. Only 10% of the top 100 companies on the JSE are owned by black South Africans.”
Access video here: WATCH: Zuma talks radical economic transformation, poverty, and land
