Suggestions for Zuma's state of the nation fill his Facebook page
Pleas for water and advice on why to study if there are no jobs, and politely written notes of anguish from remote towns around the country, filled the presidency's facebook page ahead of the state of the nation address on Thursday.
"Msholozi [President Jacob Zuma's clan name] do something about drugz nd improve our education system create more job stop telling us about skills shortage ppl r loosing their jobs were else they got skills ... so do something (sic)," wrote Sphijo Nkosi.
He hoped his appeal would make it onto the president's to-do list for the next year.
Msikeleli Nkosiyabo Tumelo, of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, wrote of the despair of graduates not getting interviews for the most junior of jobs.
They did not have start-up capital to set up their own enterprise as an alternative and were not seeing the benefits of the youth development fund or rural employment plans.
He suggested that government pay more attention to non-governmental organisations and co-operatives in rural communities as a way of creating jobs, and allocate a percentage of the value of tenders granted in communities to co-operatives there.
Siphelele Duma suggested forming an HIV/Aids fund through a R5 a month salary deduction for individuals and R100 a month for companies to make the country less dependent on donors and to avoid deaths.
There were requests that volunteers carrying out home-based care be given something, that in the light of a teachers' strike in the Eastern Cape education be de-unionised, and that beer advertisements be removed from television so children could not see them.
A social worker asked that something be done about their low occupation-specific dispensation; another asked that blacklisted youths have their financial records cleared.
There was also a plea for electricity connections and for a faster turnaround time for work permits for foreigners.
Musa Marawu wanted a focus on stock theft.
"As a rural man, you should know how much it hurts for ordinary man, whose bank is their kraal [animal enclosure] to wake up with an empty kraal," he wrote.
One man asked that job opportunities be brought closer to small towns and villages so that families were not torn apart when people left to go to the cities for work.
Drienie de Villiers wanted to know what Zuma was doing to prevent the "genocide" of white people and the country's food security as farmers were killed.
Some said reducing Chinese imports would create more jobs and prevent a Chinese "colony". Others wanted to see the building of special pullover points for taxis.
One woman wrote that she no longer wanted to drink from the "same water as cows" and begged for taps.
The speech is due to start at 7pm on Thursday.
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Suggestions for Zuma's state of the nation fill his Facebook page
For Commenters Consideration | Please stick to the subject matterCOMMENTS [2]
Mike123
Posted 107 days agoGetting ourselves a president who isn't afraid of facing his accusers (with specific regard to the accusations of corruption related to the arms deal), would probably be the first step in healing the mess that the ANC has made of our country.
Oh! Just in case you are wondering what happened to the "Dear Mr." in my comment.
Firstly, you are NOT dear to me. Those who have sought to undermine the integrity of our country have never been dear to me. This includes the entire apartheid regime, and all of those who chose to muzzle freedom in our country with the despicable secrecy bill.
Secondly, anyone who is too cowardly to face their accusers, is not worthy of the title Mister.
Horus
Posted 107 days agoHe mumbles stuff of which I think he has no appreciation, big words and great legends. I know how this speech will go, it will sound like this: We have come to a momentous moment in our glorious history of 18 years as a young nation (next year add 19), we have achieved a lot.
We honour our previous great president Mandela for having laid the foundation. We are making progress in the fight against corruption and poverty. We have achieved a wonderful pass rate in 2011, I congratulate all the matriculates… 70% of the learners for having score more than 30%.
We have successfully hosted the …… what did we host? Oh yes the climate change indaba.. in which my people had a good time beating a protestor while I was watching… how dare he disrespects me.. a warrior. We have suspended …. that guy … Bheki Cele.. with full pay and promoted him to a higher rank. We also managed to … introduce a bill that will drastically punish anyone who has information that we are corrupt. We have also increased the cost of living by…. What did that Ndebele guy do konje? …Oh yes we have installed toll gates in every major city.
We have also enriched a few families because of our poor medical system .. the malpractice lawsuits. We have also managed to destroy a province and that guy … Mathale .. he destroyed it… but you know he’s back in the Limpopo executive to finish his job. We have created …. 175 000 jobs because of private sector efforts and the nice thing you need to appreciate is that the job losses is only 900 000, less than a million.
We came up with a 2030 plan, we gave Manuel and his friends lots of bucks to write a detailed plan for 2030….. we’ll be having 61% of the population productive and 96% employed. We paid a lot of clever consultants to puff and pass some herb in order to draft this genius looking plan. We don’t have to do any of those things .. do we have to Mr Manuel? … Manuel shakes his head in agreement…. Please don’t write to us about the feasibility of our plans.
On an even brighter note, one of our comrades … that clever guy… scratching his head… yes Cyril… he go himself a nice deal with McDonalds. Even better an niece of mine.. that fat boy.. managed to save a million rands by not paying his workers… clever boy. SADF failed to transport me to meetings a couple of times … and I said f*k it … the meetings are a bore anyways… but to annoy a lot of you.. we have leased another two supercharged aircraft at a whooping cost of R1.6…. not thousand.. not million ………but billion.
We managed to turn the post office into a zoo… we got them a nice building in Centurion… you know us by now… everything we do is questionable.. and we like it that way. We tried to look nice by lobbying for the high position of the AU Commission through my …. Ex … Nkosazana Zuma. We know we are poor leaders and Africa knows it but were just testing the waters.. you see…
We have another 4 major strikes lined up this year and .. Vavi will be leading all of them to destroy productivity and instil the mentality of entitlement among the working class. We want him to issue a press statement soon thereafter to complain about unemployment… we want to make a fool out of this guy.. he he he.
I have single handed managed to bring that annoyance … they call him the purple pimp… yes that boy who is helping Mathale steal funds in Limpopo.. I … sorry we… brought him to account eventually.. we just did not know what to tie him to… we thought yes… he said something about Botswana.. he is undermining someone’s Sovereignty… aag forget that we too say stuff concerning Swaziland and the ‘draconian’ Mugabe and we recently issued a statement to the people of Syria that they should take things into their own hands. ………………………………. Ok wake up now.