Deliver, Mr President
Image by: SAPA
President Jacob Zuma must explain the government's failure to create the millions of jobs he promised and announce plans to whip provinces into line.
This is the wish-list of analysts and opposition parties ahead of Zuma's state of the nation speech tonight.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said the weak state of provincial governments, which led to a number of national government interventions, was largely responsible for poor service delivery.
"The problem of lack of delivery at provincial level compounds problems at municipal level. Is the president going to give an indication of how he is going to rein in the provinces to ensure that they are streamlined to play a role in national development?" he asked.
He said Zuma had to show bold leadership by demonstrating the political will to eliminate wastage in government departments and tightening up service delivery .
"The problem is not resources but the ability to use [them] wisely."
He said Zuma must give a clear picture of the role played by government departments to facilitate job creation. In his state of the nation speech last year, Zuma said all government departments would streamline their programmes by placing job creation at the centre of what they do.
In November, Zuma revised the government's job-creation targets down, blaming the aftershocks of the 2008 global economic recession.
But policy analyst Steven Friedman said Zuma could not hide behind global economic hardships to explain his government's failure to create jobs.
He noted the successes of some of the initiatives Zuma announced, including the R20-billion tax incentive schemes to attract new investors to the manufacturing sector.
Friedman said Zuma's instruction to government departments to prioritise job creation was not necessarily linked to how well the global economy performed.
"He needs to report back on what government departments have done because what he promised with regard to job creation was not dependent on international economic conditions," he said.
Trade union federation Cosatu also weighed in on the job-creation debate, urging the president to announce plans to restructure the economy from being reliant on mining, heavy chemicals and finance to being labour-absorbing.
"In particular, we hope to hear [him talk about] concrete measures to expand manufacturing and the beneficiation of our own resources. These must include substantial cuts in interest rates and the depreciation of the rand to encourage new investment in job-creating industries, and to make South African exports globally competitive," Cosatu said.
It also wants Zuma to announce the scrapping of the controversial Gauteng e-tolling system.
DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko pointed to 10 promises she said Zuma had made but failed to fulfil.
These include creating decent jobs, implementing the youth wage subsidy, linking social grants to economic activity, appointing the right people to the right positions in the health sector, and fighting corruption.
"I worry that it will be more of the same. We must never give the impression, and I hope we don't, that we want these things not to work. I want the president to implement these amazing policies that he proposes. We want the president to be an effective president . but his promises have to be backed up by action," Mazibuko said.
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Deliver, Mr President
For Commenters Consideration | Please stick to the subject matterCOMMENTS [19]
BornintheRSA
Posted 107 days agoHorus
Posted 107 days agothe_original_MommaCyndi
Brilliant synopsis :)
MisterWendal
Posted 107 days agoHonourable Speaker of the National Assembly,
Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces;
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP;
Deputy President of the Republic, Honourable etc etc
Blah, blah, blah
Blah, blah, blah
...create jobs....
Blah, blah, blah
Blah,blah,blah
I thank you.
MisterWendal
SuiGeneris
Posted 107 days agothe_original_MommaCyndi
Posted 107 days agoBy the way, has Zuma been in the country long enough to notice what state it is in?
MisterWendal
Posted 107 days agoDuzula
Posted 107 days agoMsLee
Posted 107 days agoOn the subject of job creation, for instance, a single report in The Citizen this morning announced that 30 national health labs have had to close because the provinces owe them billions for services rendered to provincial hospitals. Hundreds of jobs are at stake, as is the health of thousands of people, many of them very poor. Not only is government failing to create a conducive environment in which new jobs can be created, it is actively destroying existing jobs.
Another example: in the City of Joburg, many positions in the municipal-owned entities (City Power, Joburg Water etc.) remain vacant, but the city is nevertheless over its budget for staff.
One word, Mr Zuma: #epicfail.
donorfatigued
Posted 107 days agoMeanwhile the collective intellect of the entire ANC appears unable to grasp the fact, apparent to all with half-a-brain, that SA is sinking deeper and deeper and rather rapidly becoming truly a failed state where nothing works, other than the flow of riches to the connected elite.
Seriously time for a change of government - after 18 years can anyone believe that this decrepit and woeful thing called the ANC can ever get it right?
Mzungu
Posted 107 days agopushing glasses
smack-smack
pushing glasses
smack-smack
pushing glasses
smack-smack
pushing glasses
Maxi
Posted 107 days agothe_original_MommaCyndi
Electricity?
Did you know that it is effectively against the law to generate electricity unless you get permission from Eishkom? They hold a monopoly on the industry and (believe it or not) they are government owned and controlled
Rail?
Many companies used to build and maintain railway sidings which was used for the delivery of bulk products that ranged from coal to grain. Transnet claimed all those sidings as being their property as no rail tracks may be owned by private industry. Transnet then stuffed everything up so badly that those sidings are now just useless rusting memories
Roads?
Private individuals may only build, maintain or tar roads that are on private property. Any tampering with roads that are on government land is subject to prosecution. That is very logical as the liability for any faulty work that results in a crash would be the government's responsibility - of course the roads wouldn't be such a mess if the railways worked
Water and sanitation?
If you so much as allow your neigbour to use water from your borehole, you are breaking the law. Health and safety dictate that ONLY state appointed representatives may distribute water or provide sanitation.
Private industry's job is to produce a saleable product and to make a profit. They are not here to be your personal mommy. If it is viable to set up production in a country then they will. If it is not viable to set up production in a certain country then they will go elsewhere. Why else do you think that India, Australia and Brazil have had an economic boom during this 'recession'?
Maxi
If the private sector is only interested in making a profit and not contributing to unemployment issue, then I would support the plan to nationalise mines, banks and land.
MisterWendal
The government can encourage them to create jobs, however, through various job creation incentives (like additional tax rebates or reducing the expensive and sometimes unnecessary add-ons caused by BEE bureacracy, etc). But they won't, because the private will get the credit for employing people instead of the government!
the_original_MommaCyndi
If you are a parastatal then you cannot meddle with areas outside of your mandate. Eishkom is not allowed to (nor are they capable of) building railway tracks and Transnet cannot (nor do they have the facilities) to build nuclear power plants.
The job of government is to provide an environment which encourages industrialisation. Even if the government owns the mines, they cannot make a profit if there is no electricity to run the damn thing or roads and rail to transport it or no skills to run it.
Private industry runs on profits because that is the only system that works. No profit means cash flow crisis which means bankruptcy which means NO JOBS AT ALL.
Mzungu
an Entitler, hey.....
you have a 99% chance of spending your life in poverty as your entitlement will come to an end soon as the free money will come to an end. On top of that you have a 100% chance of dying in extreme poverty.
the_original_MommaCyndi
Posted 106 days agoEmploying someone to sit on the curb and check the rate of grass growth may be a way to 'create' a job for them but their lack of contribution to the economy is simply a burden. They may as well be getting a grant for all the good they do.
You get nothing for nothing. If you don't contribute then you are nothing but a millstone around the neck of a struggling state