Let’s jump right in, shall we? I have my coffee ready, and I have tied it to my hand so as not to throw it across the room.

City Press journo Mondli Makhanya wrote a piece defending Jacob Zuma. Whilst I am sure he was trying to say something positive about our president, the whole piece comes out as another “blame the white people and apartheid” article. I’m so done with those. It’s honestly the sixth one I’ve read in as many weeks.

What does Mondli have to say? Here’s two things that stuck out for me.

JZ recently spoke about the JSE being only 3% black owned:

The response to his recent comments on the JSE is a case in point. His latest sin was to state that “the black majority still owns only 3% of the JSE, pointing to the need to move faster to economic emancipation.

Mondli, of course the “masses” (as you call them) raced to grab their “pitchforks and axes” – it’s a ridiculous comment. If you have a business or company that is worthy of being on the stock exchange you are more than welcome to list on the JSE.

He then goes on to talk about how everyone always has a comment for anything JZ does or says.

The outcry against Zuma’s comments has, quite frankly, gone way overboard. While his critics have been correct to point him in the direction of the latest research, there was more than a tinge of denial about the racialised nature of South Africa’s wealth gap. Yes, it is true that to deal with a problem, you always need accurate information to show what you are dealing with and to measure progress. But while the accuracy of the data is absolutely necessary, an honest appreciation of the problem is paramount. This appreciation was glaringly absent in the past fortnight’s commentary, which veered towards the snide and mean.

I’m pretty sure one of the schools in the rural Eastern Cape could have thrived from a bit of your Nkandla money, Jacob – they could have built a school and received an education, thus opening a whole plethora of opportunity for their futures where jobs would have brought money, thus closing that wealth gap. Instead, you choose to sit in greedy silence about Nkandlagate.

I digress from Mondli’s piece. Everyone, Stop Criticising JZ, is what he is asking. Yes, whilst JZ deserves a level of respect (he is the president after all), I think sticking up for him is a bit too far – he has enough cronies doing that for him.

Whilst I appreciate that Zuma fought against the banning of the ANC and served time on Robben Island during the apartheid years, it is no excuse to do what he is doing with regards to the blame game.

Read his full piece HERE at City Press.