President Jacob Zuma says African leaders should keep their promises to serve only two terms in office.

“If they’ve agreed on two terms, they need to respect that…This agreeing to do two terms and then suddenly realising ten years is too short, it’s a problem,” he told the opening plenary of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, in Cape Town.

Earlier, African Rainbow Minerals chairperson Patrice Motsepe, who is co-chairing the forum, said business leaders needed to speak up about the two-term debate.

“We have to have some hard talk. If you have two terms of office as head of State, we have a duty to comment. It does not send a good message that you want to change the Constitution to extend your term of office.”

The President told around 1 200 delegates attending the conference that he was pleased that political leaders in Africa had become more tolerant.

“Coups have disappeared. You know, people cannot just come with a strong man. If there are wars and violence, it’s the young people who suffer instead of being educated. It’s unacceptable.”

Zuma took the opportunity to tell the forum that South Africa was firmly against corruption.

“We have developed a very strong anticorruption culture that was never there before. If there is a problem, we have structures to look at it…investigate it. Even the President is investigated thoroughly. That’s how open it is,” he quipped.

“The public has the right to go to the Public Protector and raise things openly, to try to bring an element of transparency, so that people are aware of what’s happening. People have been arrested because there is an anticorruption kind of culture and government is expected to play a role.”

The President said Parliament and institutions acted against corruption.

“No matter how big or small the issue is, people want to see that decisions are taken at the end. We are more active in fighting corruption in government than the private sector. There is more focus.”

Motsepe said corruption was “increasing in certain areas” in Africa and called for zero tolerance. 

He also lamented the recent surge of xenophobia in South Africa.

“Our future is inextricably intertwined with the future of the continent. We have to be a country that welcomes…that allows all Africans to do well. The best economies in the world have grown on the back of an environment that is tolerant and accommodating.”

More than 500 business leaders, four heads of State, government officials and participants from 75 countries were participating in this year’s WEF on Africa.