DURBAN: Duduzane Zuma, the son of former president Jacob Zuma, has laid out what his presidency would look like if he was elected to lead.
Zuma spelt out his plans during an interview with Talk Radio 702.
He said “if an opportunity presents itself” to contest the position of the ANC presidency in the near future, he would grab it.
The interview touched on several topics, such as the incarceration of Nelso Mandela Bay councillor Andile Lungisa, how he views the President Cyril Ramaphosa administration and his father's influence on him as he bids for political office.
Further, he commented on the Zondo commission probe into state capture, the Guptas and the conduct of the country’s law-enforcement agencies.
On Lungisa, who is in jail for assaulting a DA councillor at the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan, Zuma Jr said he believed he got the rough end of the stick as there was a scuffle and he was acting in self-defence.
He denied that he was entering the political arena because he wanted to do the political bidding of his father, saying: “That’s definitely not true” and called the suspicions “sour grapes”.
When he was asked what his policies would be if he was elected to lead the country, he said he would attempt “to level the playing fields” for all to prosper and leaders must understand the plight of the poor.
“The playing field needs to be levelled and the only way the playing field would be levelled is (by) rules and regulations, terms and conditions on the micro-level.
"So if we are not dealing with how us as a society engage in business, in commerce and we are living by the rules that favours a certain few – normally the people that have – it’s not going to happen,” he said.
When he was asked about his links to the Gupta family, whose activities feature prominently in the state capture commission chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, he said the “jury is still out there” on whether the family, which is holed up in Dubai, did capture the state.
He pleaded that the public should not “confuse allegations with convictions” and added that the Guptas wanted to offer their side of the story (via a video link in September 2018) but their offer was turned down by the Zondo commission.
It was during that comment that he revealed that the Guptas would like to come back to the country, but they felt the law-enforcement agencies could be used to harass them and get them caught up in political fights.
“The reason why, and this is my strong belief, is also again a level of treatment from law-enforcement agencies, not for them only but also for myself, that has not been fair, so one has to keep that in mind.
“So when you are trying to sort these issues out (state-capture allegations) you have to move very carefully because you might end up caught in something that you are not supposed to (be in),” he said.
Political Bureau