The reaction to Zuma's tate-of-the-nation address

After President Jacob Zuma's state-of-the-nation address there were srations

Zuma honest about sa's problems: fedusa

The honesty President Jacob Zuma displayed about South Africa's problems in his state-of-the-nation address was encouraging, Fedusa said on Thursday evening.

"We are positive about the president's honest reflection on the challenges faced by our beautiful country," Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) president Koos Bezuidenhout said in a statement.

He said it was good that problems which needed to be fixed could be admitted to "even at a ceremonial level".

"The president and his team did a good job at defining the problem, showing possible solutions, and reporting on progress made at various levels," he said.

Bezuidenhout praised Zuma for encouraging adult education.

"However, we do not agree with the honourable president about the declaration of an essential service of the education sector."

Fedusa considered this a "shot-gun approach", and believed the problem lay in the state's performance management systems.

"We agree that the only sustainable approach could be a collaborative approach -- between teachers, parents and learners -- to solve these problems."

On the health front, Fedusa did not share Zuma's enthusiasm about South Africa's average life expectancy.

Zuma said medical studies indicated that the average life expectancy was 60 years in 2011, up from 56 years in 2009.

"We think these figures are rather uninspiring," said Bezuidenhout.

"However, we welcome the progress in testing the National Health Insurance proposals."

He welcomed the respect for the Constitution and the rule of law displayed in Zuma's references to the matter of land reform.

"We agree that redistribution must be accelerated, but experience has taught us that it must be circumspect, and that all boxes must be crossed."

While Fedusa welcomed the establishment of the National Council on Gender Based Violence, in August, it remained to be seen whether it had been allocated sufficient budget.

"Only with a dedicated budget and adequate human resources can such a council promise any sort of respite from the rape and violence that plagues our country."

Bezuidenhout described Fedusa's overall impression of the state-of-the-nation speech as "overly positive".

"We believe that there is sufficient goodwill in government to take hands with us to address the challenges we face," he said.

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Zuma issues warning on growth

It was widely expected that the president would use his speech as a rallying call to implement the plan, and his leadership victory at the Mangaung conference two months ago to attempt to get different political forces to converge behind it.

Zuma termed the plan -- which is the vision of the country for the next 20 years -- a roadmap to creating an equal and just country.

He said its planned outcomes, from access to basic services, to safety to employment, had recently been hampered by global economic woes, and he warned that these were not about to go away.

The achievement of these goals had proved difficult in the recent past, due the global economic recession.

The crisis in the Eurozone affected South Africa's economy, as the Eurozone was its major trading partner, accounting for around 21 percent of exports.

"Our GDP growth is expected to average at 2.5 percent, down from 3.1 percent in the previous year. We need growth rates in excess of five percent to create more jobs."

In a nod to the left, the president also retained a focus on the role of a strong state in the economy in rescuing stricken industries, and rolling out infrastructure programmes.

"The past two years have demonstrated that where the state intervenes strongly and consistently, it can turn around key industries that face external and internal threats as has happened in our manufacturing sector."

He conceded that the state had encountered a learning curve on its infrastructure drive, and said projects would now be fast-tracked.

Zuma confirmed that mining taxes would be reviewed as part of a wider study on the suitability of South Africa's tax regime, but said he believed policy certainty had been brought to the sector by the decision in Mangaung to abandon the nationalisation debate.

"Later this year, the minister of finance will be commissioning a study of our current tax policies, to make sure that we have an appropriate revenue base to support public spending.

"Part of this study will evaluate the current mining royalties regime, with regard to its ability to suitably serve our people."

Referring to the Marikana shooting, the president said he believed labour stability had been secured in the Rustenburg region.

He returned to the event later in his speech, to announce that the police and justice department had been instructed to deal with violent protest as a priority.

"Courts will be allocated to deal with such cases on a prioritised roll. The law must be enforced and it must be seen to be enforced, fairly, effectively and expeditiously."

Zuma took a tough stance on crime, singling out the rape and murder of Anene Booysen, and called for a concerted effort to end violence against women.

"The brutality and cruelty meted out to defenceless women is unacceptable and has no place in our country."

He signalled a similar resolve on improving education and said a remuneration commission would tackle the teaching profession first to ensure it attracted and retained skills.

"In elevating education to its rightful place, we want to see an improvement in the quality of learning and teaching and the management of schools. We want to see an improvement in attitudes, posture and outcomes."

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Zuma orders action against rapists

He said the gang rape and murder of Bredasdorp teenager Anene Booysen showed that a collective approach was needed in the fight against the scourge.

The 17-year-old was raped and disembowelled on February 1, attracting international attention to the abuse and rape of women and girls in South Africa.

"The brutality and cruelty meted out to defenceless women is unacceptable and has no place in our country," Zuma said during his state-of-the-nation address.

Zuma said the National Council on Gender Based Violence, which was established last year, should make the campaign to fight violence against women an "everyday campaign".

The council is made up of, among others, NGOs, civil society groups, government and research institutions.

"We applaud all sectors for the campaigns that have taken place already, highlighting that such acts will not be tolerated," Zuma said.

The president said the police's family violence, child protection and sexual offences (FCS) units were continually being bolstered with increased personnel.

"During the last financial year, the units secured over 363 life sentences, with a conviction rate of 73 percent for crimes against women above 18-years-old and 70 percent for crimes against children under 18 years of age."

Zuma said the implementation of other laws would be prioritised, including the Protection from Harassment Bill.

The bill is intended to deal with the harassment of people, mostly women, by stalkers.

"While the Domestic Violence Act also provides protection, it only applies to persons who are in a domestic relationship," he said.

The Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill was also due to be signed into law this year.

"Once implemented, the law will assist women and children, who are often victims of this heinous crime."

Zuma's speech disappointing: chamber

President Jacob Zuma's state-of-the-nation speech was disappointing and lacked substance, the Cape Chamber of Commerce said on Thursday.

"A backslapping speech with little substance. The Cape Chamber of Commerce is, on the whole, disappointed by the state-of-the-nation address delivered by the president this evening," said its executive manager Bronwen Kausch.

"The presidency gave no clear policy direction. While alluding to very important topics, all the speech did was increase the frustration of business that the national policy vacuum continues."

Kausch did commend Zuma's call for harsher action against those who participated in strikes which resulted in damage to property.

"After repeated calls from business... we are heartened that, in these instances, we have been heard."

Business Unity SA (Busa) welcomed Zuma's speech.

"We also welcome infrastructure projects that have begun to gain traction, where the president reiterated to fast-track many of the projects that the Presidential Infrastructural Co-ordinating Committee had announced," said Busa CEO Nomaxabiso Majokweni.

Busa also praised the government's commitment to pay small, micro and medium enterprises within 30 days.

Majokweni said the business community was expecting to see how the National Development Plan would be financed, as this would be a challenging task in finding workable solutions to unemployment, poverty and inequality.

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No detail in zuma's speech: analyst

President Jacob Zuma's state-of-the-nation speech lacked detail about how the government would boost the economy and bring about stability in the mining sector, an analyst said on Thursday.

"I find the speech to be very informative in terms of statistics and figures, but I was waiting for value in terms of economic growth and jobs stability for the mining industry," said Oren Dayan, of the school of economics and business science at the University of the Witwatersrand.

"What would have been expected from the president is how he would bring surety for the miners and the mining companies," he said.

"We heard the figures and we heard the promise, but we did not hear the detail of how it is going to happen.

"For example: are the mining companies going to get incentives for keeping people in their jobs?" he asked.

Dayan said Zuma had not given the nation direction on how the government would change the current status quo of low economic growth.

"He [Zuma] spoke about incentives, but he didn't detail them. He spoke about improving infrastructure, but we don't know the budget. We don't know where the money is going to come from. We don't know how much money is allocated for this," Dayan said.

The speech lacked the way forward which would have given confidence to investors that the economy would grow, he said.

"Last year was exactly the same: a lot of promises and it resulted in GDP growth going down.... How do I know, as an investor, that it won't happen again? How do I know I'm not risking my money?... and we don't have the answer," he said.