Letter: Trump promises echo Zuma

I watched Donald Trump, the new president-elect of the United States make his acceptance speech. I immediately drew many parallels with Zuma’s rhetoric when making various pronouncements. Both Trump and Zuma want their countries to be united going forward; well, the Republicans, Trump’s own party, have not been united during Trump’s successful campaign, and certainly there is a lot of groundwork to do in order to get the Democrats singing the same tune. Much like Zuma, whose ANC is imploding around him, continues to say we must unite as a country. Unite the ruling party first, then you may get a working relationship going with the other parties for the better of South Africa and its citizens. This is wishful thinking and it will not happen under Zuma’s rule.

Trump states that he will ensure employment for millions of unemployed US citizens, will fix infrastructure, and ensure economic growth. I hear Zuma whispering to him in the background, prompting Trump. Both said the same thing, but, and a big but, neither one of the two has said how they will create jobs, how they will fund infrastructure overhauls, and spur economic growth. Trump has more business acumen and probably better advisers than Zuma, and will therefore stand a better chance of succeeding in turning the American economy around, as long as he can unite his own party first, then unite America. Zuma, well, he has not succeeded in anything other than single-handedly collapsing our economy, and Trump could well go this route too if he does not unite America.