Durban — Duduzane Zuma says that his new political party, All Game Changers, is going to bring much-needed change to the country.
The son of Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, said his party will be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming elections, as they will be bringing solutions to the various challenges faced by the country.
Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, Zuma said the All Game Changers party, which he founded, was aimed at empowering the youth and “redefining South Africa’s political landscape”.
It was taking a different approach compared to the other parties and offered “an opportunity for people to make an impact in the country”.
He said they would “level the field” by changing the rules of engagement, terms and conditions, and “tweaking the laws to provide everyone with a fair chance to be a part of society in an equal manner”.
Zuma said they preferred to make politics a lifestyle and hold people to account and wanted people to be part of the change. They had already begun doing so in the manner in which they lived and communicated, the narratives put out and the way they conducted their daily duties.
Asked about the decision to form his party, as opposed to joining the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, Zuma said that they had people who understood the current situation and would therefore come up with solutions that were relevant to today’s society.
Unemployment was an “unfortunate issue” that had been highlighted multiple times. He said his party had plausible solutions and would be vouching for the improvement of investments and infrastructure development.
“Unless we are reindustrialising, unless we are ramping up on our manufacturing capacity, mining capacity and other manufacturing spaces that exist in South Africa, there will be no employment.
“You need people to get off their seats wherever they are and go somewhere to work; hands-on work as opposed to people sitting in boardrooms as executives.
“Not everyone can be an executive. So, that major portion of people that we want to build our society on and fill up the middle-class space, is what we are focusing on,” said Zuma.
He was of the view that the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were being deliberately destroyed and that there were concerted efforts to try to privatise the power, logistics and arms manufacturing utilities. Some SOEs had to be controlled by the government, he said.
“I do believe that those entities, most specifically Eskom, Transnet and SAA as a national flag carrier, as an example, can never be privatised.”
Most unions were not in support of public-private partnerships, but they were an essential part of economic growth and employment, he said.
“Our unions have to soften up and get to a point where once the economy has grown, then we can have a different conversation.
“Right now we have not seen economic prosperity and economic growth for some time. We have fallen down the ranks when it comes to a country that is supposed to be sitting at the top ten of production and we are just sitting as consumers,” said Zuma.
The party manifesto would be made available to the public “in due course”.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News