Jean-Jacques Cornish

Zuma turns on the charm in Cape Town

As the ANC prepares to celebrate its 103rd birthday on Saturday, President Jacob Zuma has targeted the Western Cape which is the only one of South Africa’s nine provinces not under the control of the ruling party.

Zuma turned on the charm and the promises saying the ANC should regain the province at elections scheduled for 2016.

President Jacob Zuma’s taken to the streets of Cape Town building up excitement about the ANC’s birthday celebration this weekend.

Accompanied by party’s Western Cape Provincial Chairman Marius Fransman, he was warmly received by residents who had waited for two hours for his arrival.

Zuma told them that he would unveil a plan of action for the province at the party’s celebrations on Saturday.

The ANC’s calling on Cape Town residents to cast their votes wisely and unseat the Democratic Alliance that has controlled the province since 2009.

Zuma rejected opposition claims that the Western Cape is a model of how it could govern nationally, saying it’s the only province led by people who don’t even know the struggles of the poor, who only focus on helping those in their own areas.

He says the ANC fought for freedom, and is now fighting to change the lives of the people for the better.

The DA has increased the slim 51 percent majority that gave it the Western Cape six years ago to sixty percent at last year’s elections.

 

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.