His call this week for miners to return to work to will likely not help the sector from contracting.

Thousands of jobs are under threat as mineworkers are still on strike.

Zuma's call for CEOs and those in executive positions in private and public sectors to suspend increases in salaries and bonuses over the next 12 months is just a stop-gap measure.

Yesterday, Wits University's Chris Malekane and other economic analysts warned that freezing salary hikes would focus on the symptoms of inequality instead of the cause.

Malekane said South Africans have been robbed of national wealth and the ANC-led government sustained this "robbery".

Measures announced by Zuma, noble as they look on paper, will simply delay the inevitable.

SouthAfrica needs to grow the economy and create jobs. As long as those in power live like royalty at the expense of ordinary South Africans, anger will continue to grow.

If the ANC fails to read the signs and shift gear in how it conducts its affairs both in government and in communities, it will face a people's revolt.

This country cannot afford to paper over real issues and hope that the economic inequalities that drive the current protests across sectors will just wither away.

South Africa cannot afford to focus on what Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan called "vanity projects".

As long as Zuma allows large sums of money to be wasted under his watch, no amount of public relations will change the situation on the ground.

South Africa needs leaders who are willing to bite the bullet and deal with our economic realities without first focusing on their stomachs.