JACOB ZUMA's LEADERSHIP and GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN (2009)

RSA Presidency and the Global Economic Recession
"Under Jacob Zuma's leadership South Africa must engage the G20 nations for the whole of Africa. South Africa must become the strong voice in throughout the continent because of her strong economy in order to shape and resuscitate global economies" asserts Graca Machel at the World Economic Forum held in Capa Town this week.
According to Jacob Zuma, the present-day economic crisis provides the continent with the opportunity "to diversify markets and products" and prepare for the inevitable upturn.

'The continent (Africa) must in line with the DOHA Development Round plan for economic recovery. Focusing on the human resources of Africa could produce good results to the global economic meltdown" Zuma told the World Economic Forum on Africa during his opening address.
Zuma, added, 'the formation of the African Union in 2002 had created the constitutional basis for a united and coherent approach to the advancement of peace, democracy and development.

NB. It is, therefore, for this reason that the South African government still regard highly its flagship 'NEPAD' initiative.

"The global economic recession provides an opportunity to alleviate the effects of the so-called brain drain by attracting the Diaspora back home to assist with the planning for the recovery of the continent" notes Zuma.
This sentiments by the President of South Africa dovetails Graca Machel speech on the sidelines of the WEF on Africa when she said 'African states need to expand regional and continental trade.

Zuma concluded his opening address by qouting what the former ANC leader Prixely kaSeme had said far back in 1906 that "African people were not proletariat in the world of science and art".
Writing in his seminal book titled 'Native Life in South Africa'; Seme had attributed the economic difficulties encountered by the African farmers at the turn of the century to the White rulers and the legislation that forced them to abondon their farming livelihood and begin to work as employees in white farms.

Some commentators have, also, attributed the high unemployment rate affecting the majority African people in South Africa to the heinous and inhuman repressive laws and subsequent apartheid regime in South Africa that was aimed to underdevelop Africans in socio-economic and political bondage.

During the Africa Day celebrations held in Addis Abbaba in 2009, De Beers Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer had called to the African leaders to come to terms with the global financial crisis.
Oppenheimer had implored African business and political leaders to maximise the opportunities that were brought about by the economic meltdown and turn these conditions into Africa's rapid developmental agenda.

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