"De renovatie van het paleis van de Zuid-Afrikaanse president Jacob Zuma heeft de staat al zeker 23,5 miljoen euro gekost. Dat is meer dan het dubbele van het bedrag aan ontwikkelingshulp dat Nederland in een jaar naar het Afrikaanse land overmaakt."

Translation:

"The renovation of South Africa's president Jacob Zuma has cost the state at least 23.5 million euros. That is *more than twice* (asterisks added) the amount of development aid The Netherlands transfers to South Africa yearly."

Where's Putin33?

Hey Putin.

President Zuma is being renovated? What are they doing, replacing his skin with high-quality leather upholstery?

Zuma's presidential palace,
My bad.

This is just so infuriating Jamie that I make typos. We actually help their government financially and this is what they do with the money. It's so bloody shameless.

Oh, sure, that's absurd. He should take a leaf out of the book of President Mujica of Uruguay, who lives on a small farm.

And he travels in an old Volkswagen beetle instead of a presidential limo. I love this guy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mujica

Hey Putin.

Stop saying "Hey Putin".

Hey Jamie.

I responded to the thread. You don't need to "HEY" me at all.

I don't ask much from a leader, but living in the capital and driving a car that isn't likely to break down on route to crisis talks is the bare minimum. Mujica is doing what he wants at the expense of the needs of the people, and isn't really much better than most of the others.

...Although he is miles better than Zuma.

Volkswagens are very reliable, Octavious.

Then why do you see so many of the belching smoke and hippies in lay-bys on the A38?

them*

And the farm Mujica lives on is on the outskirts of the capital, Montevideo. So for me, he meets both your "bare minimum" criteria.

Fails utterly. By all means he can have his holiday home in the country, but he really has to live next to the seat of power most of the time. "Sorry, the President is stuck in traffic" doesn't cut it in serious nation.

But let's not lose focus on Zuma :p

And Putin!

You're being silly, Octavious. Mujica's farm is not in the county, it's on the edge of the capital city, and Montevideo is well known for having a good transport infrastructure.

Methinks your definition of "well known" could use some work, but I take your point.

Still.... Zuma!

So what's your opinion of Zuma, particularly in relation to the OP? You want to focus on Zuma, so say something on the subject.

Great dislike, but I think my views were covered in SA I and I wouldn't want to bore anyone by repeating them. I am interested in hearing others speak on the subject. The subject being Zuma (although a thread on the reliability of German cars and whether their reputation is derserved would also be interesting... although I concede not hugely so :p)

Yup in fact Octavious kind of foreshadowed this conversation, self-centered bastard seems particularly appropriate after the elsevier.nl news flash.

Octavious (1281 )
19 Oct 2012
(+1)
The article seems fair enough. South Africa has gone from being run by a bunch a white self centred bastards to a bunch of black self centred bastards. Mandela was a brief highlight in the dark, but he fell rather short of what was needed and his achievements are frankly over-hyped..

Still... they do have the world's best cricket team.

Minus the cricket team that was pretty much what I was going to say.
redhouse1938 (807 )
19 Oct 2012

As charming as José Mujica's simple life may look, it'll look downright reckless if, God forbid, something should happen to him while he's out driving his own car or living on his farm outside the capital. It might sound like a lame Bond movie plot, but is it so crazy to imagine the guy being kidnapped if he really lives like that?


Anyway, on to Zuma. He's a buffoon, and that was known already. South Africa's government is corrupt, and that was know already. I don't know what this article shows besides that foreign aid can be grossly misused, which was also known already.

If Zuma doesn't screw things up too badly and Malema can be kept out of power South Africa will be fine. It's a big if, but the country still has more going for it than virtually any other country on the continent.

Does it occur to you, Invictus, that if a leader shows himself to be a real man of the people, that might make people less likely to want to assassinate or kidnap him?

But yes Zuma is a buffoon.

Maybe the Brazilian mafia wants a cool billion US dollars in cash so they kidnap Mujica. Did that ever occur to you? Leaders need to be protected.

Good to see we agree on Zuma, though.

Of the four American presidents who were assassinated, two, probably three, were killed by lone nuts. Only Lincoln was definitely a conspiracy, Kennedy possibly (I think not). My point here is that It's naive to think that just being a well-liked man of the people is enough to keep a president, or any public figure, safe. It just takes one lucky lunatic to change history.

Kennedy was surrounded by security personnel at the time of his assassination. Fat lot of good it did him.

It sure did Ford, Reagan, and both Bushes good.