Zuma who? Zuma hears some home truths

People have had enough of the high-flying ANC big-wigs. The blinkers are coming off.

If Zuma thinks the people will stand by and let him and his cronies bullshit them while their lives deteriorate further, he is in for a big surprise.

There are no more excuses. No more blaming the past. No more leeway.

The state of the nation is directly attributable to the failed policies of the ANC. Not apartheid, not colonialism, not White subjugation.

The people can see with their own eyes what life was like under apartheid and under a ‘free’ South Africa, and apartheid was streaks better.

What good is ‘freedom’ when your life is worth a cellphone? What good is ‘freedom’ when you cannot feed your family?

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ANC President Jacob Zuma visited displaced foreigners at the Cleveland police station in Johannesburg on Friday, more than two weeks after the xenophobic attacks began.

Zuma, surrounded by security guards, made his way through a crowd of about 700 foreigners. The ANC president was accompanied by national executive committee member Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

As Zuma and Madikizela-Mandela came out of the medical unit, aid worker Lucelle Salomon from the Union of Jewish Women stopped him and told him how many NGOs had "worked their butts off" to organise the refugee camp.

"And there was no help from government," she said.

'You should show leadership'

Zuma appeared visibly uncomfortable and avoided Salomon's look.

"I am ashamed to be a South African," she told him.

"I'm coming from one genocide in Rwanda to find another here in South Africa. You should show leadership."

Zuma did not respond but merely thanked her and walked away.

Asked what Salomon thought of Zuma's lack of response, she shrugged her shoulders.

'I don't know what he thinks he's doing here'

Leon Lomboto, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, arrived in South Africa only days before the xenophobic attacks began.

His 13-year-old daughter and three-month-old baby were sheltering with him and his wife at the Cleveland police station.

Zuma spoke to Lomboto, telling him to take the baby to the clinic as it had a severe rash. Lomboto, however, said afterwards that soap had caused the rash.

He said of Zuma: "I don't know what he thinks he's doing here. We need the United Nations to come up with a solution. We have lost faith in South Africa."

Lomboto fled his Malvern home after men ordered him to leave, threatening to rape his 13-year-old daughter if he did not give them money.

"I gave them R3 000 and they left her... I have nothing left, they took everything," he said.

Some of the foreigners did not know who Zuma was.

Sylvia Sibiya from Zimbabwe shook the hand of the man who could possibly be the next president, but laughed afterwards, saying she did not know his identity.

Ernest, from Mozambique, said Zuma's visit was a little too late.

Mavis Chikukwa, from Zimbabwe, was also baffled by the sudden appearance of television cameras, photographers and journalists at the station.

Chikukwa entered the country illegally. She scaled a border fence then hitched a R1 200 ride into the city.

"I can't go back to Zimbabwe, I can't stay here at the police station, I just wanted a job. I don't know what to do," she said.

Public Sibanda, also from Zimbabwe, paid a border official R300 to get into the country. He was attacked by a mob in Malvern but still preferred to live in South Africa.

Nelly Shomari had three children with her in the clinic. They were all ill, had diarrhoea and were vomiting, she said.

"Is he - Zuma - a doctor, my children need doctors?"

Yvonne, a Congolese national, said: "I came here from Congo because I thought this country would take care of me, but it is rejecting me and my three children. They can't send me back to Congo or Zimbabwe, there is no peace there. Where in Africa can I go? I will go anywhere they will take care of us."