Cape Town — Zambia's vice president Guy Scott launched an astonishing attack on President Jacob Zuma when he reportedly compared him to South Africa's last apartheid leader, FW de Klerk.

Speaking to the UK Guardian newspaper after Margaret Thatcher's funeral, Scott hinted at Zuma's arrogance on handling the political conflict in Zimbabwe. He described Zuma as "very like De Klerk" and accused the South African president of trying to monopolise the SADC facilitation by apparently saying: "You just leave Zimbabwe to me."

Scott went on to describe the South African people as arrogant. "The South Africans are very backward in terms of historical development," Scott is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

"I hate South Africans. That's not a fair thing to say because I like a lot of South Africans but they really think they're the bees' knees and actually they've been the cause of so much trouble in this part of the world.

"I dislike South Africa for the same reason that Latin Americans dislike the United States, I think. It's just too big and too unsubtle," he is quoted as saying.

In the report, he also blasted South Africa's involvement in the Brics: "Nobody would want to go in for a partnership with Brazil, China, India and South Africa for Christ's sake."

The 68-year-old vice president also made reference to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. "I'm sure any good African nationalist admires Mugabe," he pointed out.

He reportedly described Mugabe as an "articulate, funny chap" who falls asleep and "then suddenly laughs at a joke while in the middle of dozing".