In recent weeks we’ve read reports of President Zuma justifying corruption by calling it a “Western paradigm”, which claims no victims when performed. This week, the president spoke at the Presidential Guesthouse, during the Commemoration of Black Wednesday, and he said, “Our people are not used to standing up and doing things.”

He went on to say that South Africans should stop relying on the State for assistance so much.

These remarks worry me deeply, given the State’s constitutional responsibility to protect the most vulnerable of citizens.

Where our citizens are unable to provide for themselves due to deeply rooted and insurmountable poverty, the State is obligated to offer assistance, by providing a social grant, housing, water, sanitation and electricity.

A helping hand from the State, which can shield people from the harsh reality of a life without a means to put a roof over their head, so to speak. And this is even more pronounced in a nation with such deplorably high unemployment.

So many South Africans, Mr President, do not choose to be reliant upon the State. Circumstances force people to rely on the State.

The State also has a responsibility in ensuring that it creates an environment that encourages economic growth and job creation, and laying down the infrastructure which enables small businesses to thrive. An enabling policy in the form of the National Development Plan (NDP) was created for such a purpose, but more needs to be done, and that means implementing the NDP.

It is a great worry when the president, as the chief custodian of the Constitution and our Head of State, would question the very constitutional provisions in the Bill of Rights – the foundation of our Constitutional freedom.

This past weekend I met with a community in Tshwane where the residents have stayed on a piece of municipal-owned land for at least 20 years. In this time they have been without basic services and the City of Tshwane has tried illegally to evict the community from the land.

This is a community which struggles day-to-day to survive without a scrap of assistance from their ANC local government. Their plight is the plight of millions of South Africans, who live in the shadows of poverty, hoping for the State to shine a light on their circumstances.

That light is found in the Constitution, which explicitly states that “[e]veryone has the right to have access to adequate housing.” Not only do citizens have the right to quality housing, but “[t]he State must take reasonable legislative other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.”

The Constitution is clear in its intentions. The president, on the other hand, is very unclear, especially when it comes to the Constitution.

Providing for the poor is a constitutional imperative, and it is not one that should be taken lightly, especially by the president. It is not one for him to question glibly, as he returns to his R246 million Nkandla palace, while millions of people of South Africa are relegated to self-made structures of mere survival.

In fact, when houses aren’t built and basic services aren’t delivered to our people, that is a direct violation the Constitution, and more pressingly, it strips citizens of dignity. But perhaps the president doesn’t see the irony of this, because he too violates the Constitution day after day as he tries to escape liability for his many sins.

At the same Black Wednesday Commemoration, President Zuma said that unlike the rest of Africa, South Africa has hope. What the president fails to grasp is that South Africans are fast losing hope, and that is why they often are forced to employ extreme methods to get the attention of government. They are forced to do so because government’s attention is focused on putting out fires – from the SABC to Nkandla.

Mr. President, you would also be hard-pressed to find countries on this continent where growth is nose-diving as rapidly as it is in South Africa under your watch. While our more northern neighbours show signs of 5, 6 or even 7% growth, we lurch from downgrade to downgrade. So perhaps the real hope of Africa isn’t quite how you see it.

People of this country have a history of strong protest for their rights, and these rights are enshrined in our Constitution. Today they want action from their government, and President Zuma can’t be dismissive of this.

The fact is that President Zuma’s most recently publicised remarks, the case of his 2009 representations to the NPA and the remarks he made at the Black Wednesday Commemoration, have been in conflict with the Constitution and national legislation.

But maybe that is just what President Zuma is trying to tell South Africa. In a Zuma paradigm, the law is a tool for exerting power, not for uplifting the people. DM