Speaking at the ANC Youth League's (ANCYL) 65th anniversary gala dinner at the Johannesburg Country Club, the president said “if we don't have Bafana Bafana we have nothing, so we have to encourage them”.
“Bafana will make us proud,” he said. “Bafana will demonstrate that we are a soccer nation.”
Zuma said that it was South African's fault that the national soccer team have become so weak.
“We are responsible to what happened to Bafana Bafana. We love winning and hate losing and we sack the coaches when we lose. We cannot change a coach so much and think we are going to win."
Zuma said he personally would prefer that the national coach come from South Africa.
“We have coaches in South Africa, we could choose any one of them,” he said.
Zuma honoured the ANCYL guests, Caster Semenya – winner of the 800m World Championship in Berlin recently and medalists, Khotso Mokoena (silver medal in the Long Jump) and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, 800m gold medalist.
He also honoured athletes in other sporting codes like the Springboks, the national cricket team, the paralympic games team and the deaf Olympics team.
“Their successes inspire not only the youth, but the nation and for that we salute them,” he said.
VinceRSA