Former president Jacob Zuma. Picture: Timothy Bernard, Independent Newspapers
THE LEADER of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, Jacob Zuma, says his party will bring about legal reforms that will ensure that the youth are protected against Roman-Dutch law.
Zuma, who was addressing an MK rally at the weekend, said his party would introduce a year’s mandatory military training for the youth after matric.
He said the MK would not allow children and young people to do as they pleased, adding that his party would bring back corporal punishment to deal with the ill-discipline that has allowed children to call the police on parents whenever they were being disciplined.
He said the re-introduction of corporal punishment was a means of instilling discipline. Respect for parental authority was the only way to ensure children obeyed parental laws.
“We will change the laws. We will change these laws. We will do away with the Roman-Dutch law which has been imposed on us as black Africans. We are being ruled through the Roman and Dutch laws while we have never been Romans or Dutch people but we are being governed through this law.
“We must be governed through our own laws as Africans. We must be governed through appropriate African law which is fair and transparent and does not discriminate based on your social standing in society.”
Zuma added that children were being made to suffer when the country was rich in minerals.
“We never used to be poor. But now, our children are unable to get an education because parents are poor and unemployed and therefore can’t afford to pay university fees. Our government should be allowing children to get free education.
“We tried to bring free education to our children to enable them to contribute to the country’s economy and make our country great again. As the MK Party, we will pass a law that does not allow people to take our minerals away from us.”
Zuma said that when the MK took over the country, no young person would be allowed to spend their time getting up to mischief.
“No young man will be allowed to be lazy and spend their time drinking in shebeens. We will not allow that. We will force them to go to school. We cannot allow our children to drink while the country burns. What will help us is to offer our children one year mandatory military training once they complete their matric.”
Zuma said the MK Party proposed the establishment of a university on Robben Island, dedicated to providing education to pregnant teenagers until they completed their studies.