Pablo

Zuma has avoided answering the corruption charges.

Pablo

If 66% of people thought he was innocent, it would not make it so. Truth is not established by popular acclaim.

The point of the poll was that Zuma supporters *believed* he was a corrupt rapist and still intended to vote for him.

Stanley10

What charges?

Stanley10

And yet because you "think" he is guilty it is so?

Pablo

The point of the poll was that Zuma supporters *believed* he was a corrupt rapist and still intended to vote for him.

Stanley10

And how accurate do you think you poll was?

Pablo

The point of the poll was that Zuma supporters *believed* he was a corrupt rapist and still intended to vote for him.

Most people are capable of stating accurately what their opinion is.

Stanley10

How accurate do you think the poll was?

(Your original comment alluded to a sizable number of ANC supporters, now it is Zuma supporters.) Who did the poll, why did they do it? Pollsters can twist questions and samples to get the answers they want.

Pablo

Most people are capable of stating accurately what their opinion is.

Stanley10

Ok, so if you won't answer the question, give me a link and I'll have a look at it.

Pablo

You are pretending to pursue what you have already declared to be an irrelevancy.

Tegwyn

If this wasn't so pathetic - it would be funny. Just how desperate are some people who need to hide behind semantics to find some semblance of validity of the ethics of our fine South African president?

Pablo

Quite, Tegwyn. Stanley seems to possess a petty Pharisaical legalism that only springs into action when there is an African despot or kleptocrat to defend.

I would be tempted to say he is congenitally unable ever to see the bigger picture, except for the fact that he clearly saw the bigger picture when he voted with his feet and fled South Africa for Australia.

Let us not lose sight of what Stanley is defending.

He is defending a fat thick sexist gerontocrat with multiple wives and various "official girlfriends", who still found it necessary to engage in unprotected sex with a vulnerable young woman he knew to be hiv positive, a friend of the family who was a guest in his own home. She subsequently claimed he had raped her, and has been forced to leave South Africa in fear for her life and is now living in exile in Holland, having suffered a nervous breakdown. During the trial, mobs of wild Zuma supporters gathered each day outside the court, brandishing lurid placards, including "Kill the bitch".

This same man has spent the past years ducking and diving and wriggling and sliding in order to avoid answering the myriad corruption allegations raised against him, while at the same time declaring how he really, really wanted his day in court to defend himself.

When it became clear Zuma was going to be elected president, the craven bureaucrats over whom he now presides thought it was expedient to decide, on an absurd cooked-up technicality, that the charges should be dropped.

And thus, according to Stanley, the pig is innocent. Well I shall leave Stanley to his opinion on that.

ededed

Right, right and right again Pablo.

This is absolutely the view from the chattering classes in SA - I haven't heard a single alternative whisper to this from any step on Johannesburgian society's long and rickety social ladder.

He's as guilty as a puppy sitting by a pile of poo. Any person of sound mind can see it.

Stanley10

Thanks for that Pabs, decided to stop holding my breath and do my own research. I guesss the poll you refer to is the Ipsos Markinor poll from October last year.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_A...476595,00.html

Interesting headline, while hidden in the story is that 41 % think he is innocent. 100 - 41 = 59 right. What about don't know's or refuse to answers? Perhaps the headline is a bit misleading. Also only relates to corruption, no mention of rape, so your assertion that
is incorrect, unless there is another survey floating around.

Also came across Guy Berger's comments on the survey http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/guybe...ics-%E2%80%A6/
(I do wonder if this is the same one commissioned by the Times in which 3500 metropolitan voters were surveyed by phone, if so surely it ignores rural voters).

I find the following paragraph particularly interesting:
"My guess is that it’s incompetence. But many people would say the mainstream media is quick to make a meal, even when quarter-baked, of statistics that suggest problems for Zuma’s leadership."

So either incompetent or making a meal of it. Yep I think so.