Zuma's tired politics of division a dismal rallying cry

After ducking and diving in the run-up to this week's poll - avoiding a tough crowd in Marikana, sticking to friendly rural villages, keeping schtum on Nkandla and fleeing any hint of a boo - President Jacob Zuma finally pitched up at a proper election bash in Soweto yesterday.

And what did he do? He carried on dodging hot issues - then he played the race card.

How predictable. How dull. How dispiriting.

Speaking to 90000 people, he said his government would "strengthen enforcement of employment rules designed to give black South Africans more control of business. Successful implementation will open more opportunities for African, Indian and coloured people, as well as women, the young and persons with a disability."

Casting voters as victims, and making fulsome - but very vague - promises of deliverance, is a tired old hustings strategy. A country sensing crisis in all quarters needs far more substance from a leader.

The subtext of the president's words is that white people are the big problem, that they cunningly remain oppressors and that the ANC has a solution to their devilishness.

It is similar to the message the ANC once used with full justification. But it is a threadbare argument now, 20 years into the ANC's custodianship of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela was determinedly inclusive in his presidency, realising that all in this country need each other - for social cohesion, for growth, for jobs, for "a better life for all". Putting aside silly squabbles, he willed us to pull together.

That rock of unity, rolled uphill under Mandela's inspiration, has been allowed to roll back down again by the likes of Zuma and their self-serving, short-sighted politics.

Economic growth, and finance and business transformation, are very important, of course.

Trouble is, Zuma's ANC has handled them in a woefully ham-fisted way over the past five years. So why believe his promises now, just because they come with a ready-made scapegoat?