President has some dog owners barking mad

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Created on Friday, 28 December 2012 09:18

From Cape Times

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma rushed to defend his statements about dogs and hair straightening after a frenzied debate – plus a lot of lighthearted banter – erupted among South Africans on social networking sites and radio stations yesterday.

It was a dog-eat-dog world as people argued over comments Zuma made at Impendle in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.

A photograph posted by Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi with his two dogs – his boerboel Superhero and Jack Russell Maradona – went viral on Twitter, as well as a historic photo of Nelson Mandela with his Rhodesian ridgeback, taken by the late Alf Kumalo.

The president was reported to have said that buying and caring for dogs by walking them and taking them to the vet is part of “white” culture and that “even if you apply any kind of lotion and straighten your hair you will never be white”.

Zuma also cautioned young Africans against trying to adopt other lifestyles and said those who loved dogs more than people lacked humanity.

In a statement released yesterday, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj did not deny that the president had made the comments. However, he said that the “few remarks” were in fact about “promoting ubuntu and maintaining respect and high regard for other human beings and African culture”.

“The (president’s) message merely emphasised the need not to elevate our love for our animals above our love for other human beings.”

The president did not mean animals should not be loved or cared for, said Maharaj.

The president’s essential message, he said, was “the need to decolonise the African mind post-liberation to enable the previously oppressed African majority to appreciate and love who they are and uphold their own culture”.

Zuma’s speech included “the well-known example of people who sit with their dogs in front in a van or truck with a worker at the back in pouring rain or extremely cold weather”, said Maharaj.

The president was also criticising those who did not hesitate “to rush their dogs to veterinary surgeons for medical care when they are sick while they ignore workers or relatives who are also sick in the same households”, he added.

Maharaj said Zuma also wanted his audience to know that “they should not feel pressured to be assimilated into the minority cultures”.

Criticising the media coverage of Zuma’s speech, he said: “It is unfortunate that the journalists concerned chose to report the comments in a manner that seeks to problematise them, instead of promoting a debate about deconstruction and decolonisation of the mind as part of promoting reconciliation, nation building, unity and social cohesion.”

Posting a photograph of himself with Superhero and Maradona, Vavi said he had given ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe a puppy years ago. “He keeps dogs too,” tweeted Vavi.

But Vavi said he was not offended by Zuma’s comments. “As an animal lover and proudly black I don’t feel insulted by that comment – I do have compassion for humans too.”

Speaking to the Cape Times yesterday, Makasuhle Gana, DA federal youth leader, said it was unfortunate Zuma chose to use race to illustrate his points.

“I don’t believe it makes you less of an African to show your love for your animals,” he said.

The ANC Youth League declined to comment.

Among those who tweeted on the issue was Young Communist League spokesman Khaya Xaba who wrote that a “rich man’s dog gets more in the way of vaccination, medicine and medical care than do the workers upon whom the rich man’s wealth is built”.

While a flurry of other users were angered by Zuma’s comments, many agreed with his sentiments.

A heated and at times ugly debate erupted on the Cape Times Facebook wall, with user Alnord Munyenyembe Kamanga appealing for calm: “Cool down, why r u making racist issues out of nothing, get a life people.”

Comedian Marc Lottering tweeted, “Dammit. Just gave my dog water. Sometimes I can be such a Colonialist.”

President's remarks on promoting Ubuntu

Press release from the Presidency:

A lot has been made by Independent Newspapers journalists of a few remarks that President Zuma made in Impendle, KZN Midlands, about promoting ubuntu and maintaining respect and high regard for other human beings and African culture.

The President in his wide-ranging address referred to what people should guard against, such as loving animals more than other human beings. He made the well-known example of people who sit with their dogs in front in a van or truck with a worker at the back in pouring rain or extremely cold weather. Others do not hesitate to rush their dogs to veterinary surgeons for medical care when they are sick while they ignore workers or relatives who are also sick in the same households.

This is not to say that animals should not be loved or cared for. The message merely emphasised the need not to elevate our love for our animals above our love for other human beings. He emphasised the need is to preserve that which is good in certain cultures and avoid adopting practices that are detrimental to building a caring African society.

More than that, the essential message from the President was the need to decolonise the African mind post-liberation to enable the previously oppressed African majority to appreciate and love who they are and uphold their own culture. They should not feel pressured to be assimilated into the minority cultures, he said. He underlined the need to begin promoting the culture of the majority, African culture, within the diversity of South African society, as part of building a new society following the attainment of political freedom.

The President's view is that as we move towards the second phase of socio-economic freedom, cultural freedom should not be left behind.

It is unfortunate that the journalists concerned chose to report the comments in a manner that seeks to problematise them instead of promoting a debate about deconstruction and decolonisation of the mind as part of promoting reconciliation, nation building, unity and social cohesion.