SA rubbishes witchcraft claims
Jacob Zuma

Jacob Zuma

Cape Town. — Media reports that President Jacob Zuma used to practice witchcraft “are ridiculous and misleading,” the Presidency has said. The Presidency issued the statement following reports that Zuma spoke in the village of KaNyamazane, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province on Wednesday that he used to practice witchcraft against white people.

“I used to practice witchcraft around here, bewitching the Boers during apartheid,” Zuma reportedly said.

Responding to the reports, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said it appears that some journalists, who probably do not understand the isiZulu language, did a literal translation and lost the meaning.

“The President, speaking in KwaNyamazane, Mpumalanga in isiZulu, related to the audience how, while operating in exile in Swaziland, he used to infiltrate South Africa through the KwaNyamazane area to do underground political work,” Maharaj said.

“Given the ‘cloak and dagger’ manner of such underground operations, they were referred to jocularly as ‘ukuthakatha’ (witchcraft), which implied ‘bewitching’ the authorities by outwitting them,” Maharaj said.

The Daily Mail newspaper claimed that Zuma and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) may try to play on South Africans’ racial fears to win support in the run-up to the 2014 elections, expected to be held in April. — Xinhua.

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