Eying re-election, South Africa’s Zuma shifts gear

South African president Jacob Zuma toured a drug-ravaged Johannesburg suburb Tuesday, using an emotional plea from local mothers to highlight his government’s drive for change, ahead of an upcoming election.

Less than a year before voters decide whether Zuma will get a second five-year term, the ANC leader — who has been criticised for being disengaged from the country’s many problems — hit the streets vowing action.

Visiting the blighted Eldorado Park area after 23 “desperate moms and sisters” wrote to him pleading for action on drugs, Zuma said he would personally tackle the issues they raised.

The area voted overwhelmingly for the opposition Democratic Alliance in 2011 municipal elections.

The mother of a teenage boy broke down at a rally as she recounted how drugs had ravaged her community while a corrupt police force turned a blind eye.

Dereleen James described how her 17-year-old son, who has undergone rehabilitation twice, had turned to theft to feed his addiction.

“He tormented us daily for money and when we refused he would go wild. He got his fix from the very transport that took him to school.”

Referring to Zuma as “daddy”, James expressed fear that the meeting might turn up to be another political talk shop.

“I’m afraid, I am scared you will leave us with a lot of hope and not do anything about the situation,” said a sobbing James.

Zuma, who was flanked by several ministers, vowed to personally lead the campaign against drug abuse.

“We will not be a government if we don’t take action,” he said after listening to moving pleas from parents and victims of drug abuse.

After securing the ANC nomination in December, Zuma is expected to coast to victory in polls expected in April 2014.

But after a string of scandals that have tainted his adminstration and reinvigorated the opposition, his ANC faces a struggle to retain 60 percent of the popular votes.

The Democratic Alliance hopes to wrestle control of Gauteng — the province that includes greater Johannesburg and Pretoria — at the next year’s election.

The rule of law has proven to be Zuma’s achilles heel, with corruption and police scandals dogging his adminstration.

Police came in for bashing again on Tuesday for abetting the problem through taking of bribes from drug lords.

Zuma said the police minister and close ally Nathi Mthethwa who also attended the meeting was going to act and “a difference will be seen”.

Zuma said government would move swiftly to shut down drug and prostitution spots popularly known as “lolli lounges” that flood the suburb.

“These are matters we will deal with quickly,” he said.

Twenty-year-old Kelly-Anne Dearling who is recovering from treatment for addiction courageously took to the podium to recount how she started on drugs at the age of 13.

She was forced into prostitution to feed her addiction and recalled one night she slept with 12 Nigerian men.

While some drugs are produced locally in South Africa, the continent’s wealthiest country has also become a major transshipment hub for importing and exporting them.

The use of cannabis, cocaine, and tik (methamphetamine) is twice as much in South Africa as worldwide, according to a 2011 report by the country’s Drug Central Authority.

The country’s official statistics agency also said Tuesday that one in 10 South Africans was HIV positive but AIDS-related deaths were falling as ramped-up treatment begins to have an impact.