Johannesburg – South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki warned on Thursday that the country faced a time bomb and could see an uprising similar to the Arab Spring triggered by mounting discontent.
Mbeki, who succeeded the country’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela in 1999, said the country was facing unsustainable levels of poverty and joblessness.
“One of my fears, comrades, is that one of these days, we… are going to have our own version of the Arab Spring,” Mbeki told mourners at a memorial service for Jessie Duarte, the ANC deputy secretary general who died from cancer at the weekend.
Police harassment of a Tunisian street vendor triggered a nationwide revolt that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
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“I’m saying one of my fears is that one of these days it’s going to happen to us,” said Mbeki who left office in 2008.
“You can’t have so many people unemployed, so many people poor, people faced with this lawlessness” – and “corrupt” leadership, he said.
“One day it’s going to explode.”
Mbeki took a swipe at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government for lacking a national plan to tackle poverty, inequality and unemployment which stands at over 34.5%, and youth joblessness at nearly 64%.
Ramaphosa was absent from the memorial service which was instead attended by his deputy David Mabuza.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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