ZUMA GIVES SAME SEX BILL THE NOD

I know that this piece is hugely out of date and that the bill has been long since passed and all the hype around it over and done with. I have put here for a specific reason though - my 'friend' Zuma!

The man does clearly not know what the hell he believes in or what he stands for! It is as if he will bend in whichever direction to get what he wants. Here he wants the "pink" vote - someone obviously has told him just how many 'gays' have the vote and he is now trying to 'make nice' for these votes, and if he gets them, then what - the man wouldn't know the truth if his life depended on it.

God help us if he is ever elected to lead this country!

Zuma gives same-sex Bill the nod
October 23 2006 at 10:31AM

By Angela Quintal

Less than a month after apologising to gays and lesbians for his homophobic statements, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma gave the thumbs up to a controversial Bill recognising same-sex marriages. In an interview broadcast on BBC World on Sunday, he said: "With regard to the people who want to marry, I don't think one can be judgmental." We have a constitution that guides us and we have to abide by it; no matter at times what other kinds of views people have."
'A disgrace to the nation and to God'Referring to the Civil Union Bill, he said it was being piloted in parliament because of 2005's Constitutional Court ruling recognising same-sex marriages.Zuma stressed that people had the right to express their views, but these should "not hurt or undermine other people in terms of their constitutional rights".

The ANC deputy president said his comments at a Heritage Day event had been misinterpreted, but that he had apologised unconditionally for hurting gay people. The Sowetan newspaper quoted him as saying at the time that same-sex marriages were "a disgrace to the nation and to God". Zuma was also reported as saying that "when I was growing up, an ungqingili (a gay) would not have stood in front of me. I would knock him out." Last week the National House of Traditional Leaders submitted its comments against the bill to parliament and called for an amendment to the constitution to protect the traditional form of marriage as a union between a woman and a man.

'They tend to create a situation of point-scoring'

In the interview, Zuma also defended the government's stance on HIV and Aids. He said its programme had been recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the most advanced in the world. "You may say probably we have not done enough, but it is not correct to say we are doing nothing." Zuma again said that the problem in South Africa was the people tended to politicise the issue of HIV and Aids. "They tend to create a situation of point-scoring that creates the impression that we are not doing enough. We are doing quite a lot. "Zuma stuck to the line that he was not campaigning to be the next leader of the ANC, repeating that this was not the culture of the party. He attributed perceptions that he had presidential ambitions to the media. "I am not looking for any leadership... It will be the ANC that will decide."But he said "he had never refused a task of my organisation", making clear that if elected President Thabo Mbeki's successor he would not say no.

In a blow to those in the alliance who believe Zuma would be more amenable to leftist economic policies should he become President, he said that when it came to the economy he was guided by ANC policy."You cannot separate Zuma from the ANC's policy on the economy."This is likely to be a blow to people such as Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi, who in a recent interview said there was no such thing as a free lunch for Zuma. Zuma also said he was no Robert Sobukwe or Bantu Holomisa, implying he would never lead a breakaway to form his own political party. Sobukwe led a faction that broke from the ANC in 1958, forming the PAC, while Holomisa formed his own party, the United Democratic Movement, after he was expelled from the ANC in 1996.

Zuma said he would remain in the ANC even if the person elected to succeed Mbeki in 2007 was someone other than himself. "I know the prophets of doom have always predicted that the ANC will one day break... (because) of the problems in the alliance. The ANC will never break."Zuma stuck to his guns that the question of his presidential ambitions was all a media creation. Asked directly whether he might leave the ANC and form his own party, Zuma replied: "How can I? That is not me. In the ANC, even if there were different names (for president), once... the membership has spoken even if you have a different view, you become part of it. That is how we have maintained unity."On whether Afrikaners were Africans, Zuma stated emphatically that they were "definitely Africans". "We are a unique country. They are certainly Africans in the full sense of the word. Everybody in South Africa feels at home. We have a constitution that protects every grouping and it promotes culture. There's no culture that is looked down upon."