President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has told his country’s Parliament that his government never apologised to Malawi over disparaging remarks he made at a Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) manifesto forum launch in Johannesburg last month.
On Monday this week, the State-owned South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (Sabc) News Online reported that Zuma refuted apologising to the Government of Malawi for his recent comments on the country’s roads.
Zuma, in response to a question in Parliament on his government’s correspondence with the Malawi High Commission in South Africa regarding his comments, is quoted by the Sabc News Online as having said: “It is a matter of fact that Africa has a poor roads infrastructure.”
Sabc further quoted Zuma as having said there is no correspondence received from Malawi, and that South Africa never sent any retraction on the matter.
Zuma was widely quoted in the media last month as having said: “We can’t think like Africans, in Africa, generally. We are in Johannesburg, this is Johannesburg. It’s not some national road in Malawi.”
He made the comment in an apparent attempt to convince motorists to accept plans to impose toll fees on highways around Johannesburg.
But his comments prompted Malawi to summon South Africa’s High Commissioner in Lilongwe, Cassandra Mbuyane-Mokone, to clarify the statement.
The following day, Zuma reportedly sent his Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Marius Fransman to Malawi to meet President Joyce Banda at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.
Malawi Minister of Information and Civic Education Brown Mpinganjira last month told The Nation that Zuma apologised through Fransman.
But on Tuesday, Mpinganjira could not immediately react to Zuma’s statement in Parliament, saying he needed time to consult.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Principal Secretary George Mkondiwa, at the time, said Mbuyane-Mokone was apologetic.
But Zuma’s U-turn contradicts what his spokesperson Mac Maharaj said after Zuma’s jibe.
“I have received numerous calls from Malawians being angry and after long discussions, they come around and say, yes, let’s not make a mountain of a molehill,” Maharaj said. “Let me apologise for that and withdraw it.”
He said the comments did not reflect how Zuma thought or how he acted in forums about Africa.
Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko last month demanded that Zuma must explain the blunder to Parliament.
