In some countries the media were applauded as patriotic for not reporting on crime, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.
Zuma was responding, in the closing session of the three-day World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, to a plea for his government to make South Africa a safer place to do business.
He said the new administration would do ”everything we can” to make sure crime was eradicated.
”It is one of the things that we are going to invest a lot in, in ensuring that the environment is clear,” he said.
”Although I’ve always argued this, whether it is the only deterrent.
”Because there are countries that have crime, but [it] is not an issue that is put forward.
”In fact in some places [it is] not as reported as it is in South Africa.
”I think in South Africa we have a media that doesn’t leave anything, it reports everything including the rate of crime.
”In other countries the media is applauded by not reporting crime, that they are patriotic, because they are not marketing their countries negatively.
”I think in a sense we should look at South Africa even from that point of view, that we are so transparent, that there are no issues that we believe are the issues that should be dealt with [as] domestic issues. They are all known.
”If you come to South Africa you know exactly what to meet. You can not be surprised by issues when you come in.”
The appeal to Zuma had come from the floor in the closing session, from a businessman who said his factory was recently robbed and an employee hijacked.
Zuma also on Friday berated the union movement for not playing its part in helping pull the country out of the financial crisis it is facing.
He said there was a very serious attempt in South Africa to protect the economy from the worst effects of the global recession.
Agreements were made, he said, through the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), which identified four industrial sectors for special treatment.
How in these circumstances and facing these challenges, the president wondered, could the unions ”find more opportunities to have more strikes”?
The effect, he added, ”is that of exacerbating the situation”. The international labour organisations are part of the solution, and should not be part of the problem.
”We need to apply extraordinary measures to meet the challenge,” Zuma said, adding that the situation affects all of us.
He spoke of the need for Africa to ”move massively” to create jobs and transform, the economy. ”Let us create opportunities here,” he said, ”so that at the end we emerge with a different situation.”
This was the second day on which South African unions have come under fire from members of the government. On Thursday the Planning Minister Trevor Manuel also criticised the unions, and in addition hit out at employers for being cowards and submitting to their demands. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge