‘Nine wasted years’ is a myth, says Mantashe

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe told a crowd during the people’s manifesto in Laxey, Northern Cape, on Monday that claims that the nine years of former president Jacob Zuma’s presidency were wasted were a myth.

The statements were recently made by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that the past decade can be called “nine wasted years”.

Ramaphosa recently used the phrase “nine lost years” while speaking in Davos, Switzerland. Mboweni said the Zuma years were “wasted” and destroyed confidence among investors in South Africa.

“When you destroy investors’ confidence, the natural consequence of that is that investment dries up. Post-2017, confidence has been returning to South Africa, policy uncertainty is being removed and greater certainty is coming back,” Mboweni said in Davos.

According to Mantashe, the claim that they were nine years wasted was a myth.

He said: “It was under the leadership of president Jacob Zuma that there was a stronger focus on education. We split education into basic education and higher education, and that focus improved our performance. We must tick, that is not wasted. Access to ARVs, a war against HIV/Aids was intensified under this leadership.

“We can list them; health, education, agriculture, you can say the last four years were difficult. That problem is what we call a desert in the journey and we’ll never destroy ourselves because of what we call a patch of a desert. We must go through that desert, re-energise ourselves. When we talk of the new dawn, we talk of coming out of the darkness and we come out into a dawn. When we get into that dawn, we get into a light, when we get into that light, we put all our energy in improving our society.”

Mantashe further criticised the behaviour of ANC leaders who made different announcements on the same issues.

“We must address that issue at all levels. We must put our shoulders on the wheel to solve problems facing our country.”

The former president also defended himself against those who said his years were wasted, listing all his achievements.

Zuma said: “When I became ANC president in 2007, we needed to deal with the immediate challenge of HIV/Aids decimating our people. Today, millions of lives have been saved and transformed and we no longer see and read about ‘Aids babies’ who die before their fifth birthday. South Africa today has the biggest treatment programme in the world with more than 3.9 million people on treatment by August 2017.

“Life expectancy increased from 58.8 years in 2007 to 64.3 in 2015, while the death rate fell.

“South Africa remains a country of deep social challenges and poverty, but we spent the past decade working to change that, and there is much to be proud of today.”

Read more: Zuma hits back at those in the ANC calling his terms ‘nine lost years’ 

(Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde)

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