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President Jacob Zuma has called for opinion-makers and opposition parties to stop talking the country down.

“We urge those who have access to the media from all sectors, including opposition politicians, to stop talking our country and economy down.

“No country should be made to withstand such negativity and total disregard of progress being made or any positive attribute. We wish to encourage public opinion-makers to also reflect the strides that have been made in all 18 years,” he told the Presidential Infrastructure Investment Conference on Friday at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

“Nothing could be more inspiring than working together collectively to build our country.

“We have to promote our country and boost confidence in the economy so that it can grow and create jobs,” he said.

Zuma complained about the media coverage of the freezing of salary hikes and bonuses of high income earners. He said there was too much focus on the freezing of salaries and disregard for other matters agreed to in the meeting between him, business, unions and community representatives this week.

“I convened a high level dialogue with the leadership of business, labour and the community sector at the Union Buildings.

“We agreed on measures that will help restore normality in the economy, especially mining, while also dealing with the social inequalities and income disparities that cause frustrations among our people. We’ve released a full package, agreed to publicly, and it definitely goes beyond salaries and bonuses,” Zuma said.

“We have to give our people hope as indeed a lot is being done to create a better life, even though things may not be moving as fast as we all want them to, given the frustrations and the legacy of the past,” he said.

On Friday Zuma told delegates from business, government, labour and community organisations that government would be spending R4 trillion on infrastructure projects in the next 15 years.

A total of R844 billion would be spent on infrastructure projects in the next three years.

Funding would be sourced from both the public and private sectors. - Sapa

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Comments

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Sat May 25 15:57:38 SAST 2013 ::

Oct 19, 2012

RobinH

People will stop "talking it down" when you and your mates stop TAKING IT DOWN.
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Oct 19, 2012

Julz

I agree with the President - we are too negative
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Oct 19, 2012

KasiKid

What an idiot, he is the one responsible for all these negative things.
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Oct 19, 2012

RobinH

Julz: People are negative because they have eyes.
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Oct 19, 2012

sabza007

Zuma must deal with these illegal immigrants all over the who are killings our Rhinos and killing our people because they give my country a bad publicity as if my country is Hell on earth.
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Oct 19, 2012

malemaforpresident

Bring in One Man One wife Policy Mr Shower
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Oct 19, 2012

Dzel

So we should applaud when the president tells us he has asked people who earn millions to freeze their pay for one year when the real issue is people are being paid as little as R 1,500 a month?

What is this freeze going to achieve and have we addressed the root cause?

People complain because Zuma is a useless president, if he wants us to stop complaining he has to earn that. Making pointless and superficial "compromises" does not take us forward as a country.
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Oct 19, 2012

seribe

How can you do negative things and expect positive result. Shower head just step down
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Oct 19, 2012

Mellow

Step down and see how positive everyone is gonna be
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Oct 19, 2012

malemaforpresident

seribe
How can you do negative things and expect positive result. Shower head just step down
====================================
He must lead by example
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