PARLIAMENT, February 7 (ANA) – President Jacob Zuma delivers his 10th state of the nation address on Thursday, weakened by scandal and infighting, and confronted with a long wishlist of problem fixing from political parties, topped by the economy.
The political opposition said the continued decline of state-owned enterprises, the threat of a credit rating downgrade and rampant unemployment deserved attention in his address but past experience showed Zuma would deliver mostly empty promises.
Political parties also lashed out at Zuma for ordering hundreds of troops to be deployed at Parliament in support of the SAPS.
DA chief whip, John Steenhuisen, described it as the militarisation of SONA while the EFF said it was a "declaration of war".
Meanwhile, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said while the president has promised to curb excesses at parastatals and to channel more investment to empower small and medium sized businesses, this simply had not materialised.
“No progress. Various [Auditor General] AG reports show massive mismanagement and wasteful expenditure at most state-owned enterprises (SOEs), resulting in billions in lost revenue. There exists no tangible indications of improved monitoring and evaluation systems.
He added: “[Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises] SMMEs continue to struggle in an economic and labour environment not conducive to growth. StatsSA latest statistics on liquidations and insolvencies for December 2016 revealed that there was a year-on-year increase of 3.4 percent more liquidations.”
The United Democratic Movement agreed that, with the exception of a slight improvement at Eskom, SOE’s were deteriorating as evidenced by the crises at the SA Broadcasting Corporation and SA Airways.
“He appointed the presidential review commission, and has to say how far they have come with it and what plans they have put in place to remedy the situation,” UDM MP Nqabayomzi Kwankwa said.
Stressing that the economy and job creation was of “paramount importance,” he urged Zuma to explain how the government planned to avert a potential credit ratings downgrade and to address the issue of policy uncertainty and other barriers to investment.
Kwanka took issue with the ANC’s plans to pack out Cape Town’s Grand Parade with 10,000 supporters from early afternoon and for Zuma to greet the crown after his address to Parliament.
“It is utter nonsense. This is not a January 8 celebration,” he said referring to the annual celebration of the founding of the ANC, and warned that opposition parties would question the use of public funds to turn an event of state into a political rally.
The African National Congress spokesman in the Western Cape Yonela Diko rejected suggestions that the event was designed to show support for Zuma.
Instead, he said it was aimed at including ordinary people in the state of the nation address and countering simultaneously the notion that Parliament had become “an elitist enclave” and the personality cult around Zuma.
“We are trying to correct a mistake that has happened, that personality cults have isolated our leaders. The ANC has always been a collective… it is a huge movement which he is privileged to lead.”
A big question was whether the Economic Freedom Fighters would again disrupt proceedings and protest that Zuma was not the legitimate leader of the country.
While EFF spokespeople or MPs were not available at the time of publishing, a tweet by party leader Julius Malema said: “We are ready for the so called #SONA, no amount of security presence can deter us, ‘A coward dies a thousand times before his death’.#Asijki”
The security presence around the parliamentary precinct has been heightened over the past few years, despite Parliament insisting #SONA2017 will have the same arrangements as previous years. Opposition parties said they expected fireworks from the EFF within the chamber and possibly clashes outside.
On Tuesday, the Presidency announced that Zuma authorised for 441 South African National Defence Force members to be deployed from February 5 to February 10, with the police to “maintain law and order” during SONA.
Meanwhile, the ANC has set its own set of demands for Zuma to meet, releasing a statement on Sunday asking for “Radical Economic Transformation NOW”.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said transformation could be brought about in 12 ways, which included returning the land to the dispossessed in a constitutional manner, investing more in townships and rural communities, rolling out broadband infrastructure and boosting construction. The party also wanted the national minimum wage to be finalised, free higher education for the poor, and for government to “mercilessly deal with corruption, fighting both the tigers and the flies”.
However, for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the infighting within the ruling party was the most important issue for Zuma to raise.
“He cannot evade the issue because the platform is to talk about government…but if you don’t have stability in your camp, people don’t have confidence in the ruling party to deliver,” said IFP chief whip Narend Singh.
“We hear about cabinet reshuffles, the disrespect shown to chapter 9 institutions, comments on the judiciary… if he doesn’t address it he would be failing in his duty as president of the country to tell us how these tensions are making an impact, and they are impacting on service delivery.”
National Freedom Party (NFP) spokesman Sabelo Sigudu said Zuma should prioritise free higher education and set out how this could be achieved. The NFP, who has its main support base in KwaZulu-Natal, also called on Zuma to deliver on a promise to set up a special economic zone in Harrismith, which would create a transport and logistics hub linking KwaZulu-Natal with Gauteng and the Free State.
It could create 35,000 jobs immediately, said Sigudu.
“It’s pending and the president is saying nothing on that. It’s now five years after [the announcement was made].”
For the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) president Kenneth Meshoe, Zuma has to prioritise the poor quality education and the high unemployment rate, saying charity should begin at home and not in other countries who were being allowed to dump their goods in South Africa.
Meshoe also wanted to hear about tackling corruption, especially where it involved police officers turning a blind eye to prostitution and drugs.
“There are allegations that our police officials are colluding with drug dealers, people are being evicted from their homes and the houses are turned into brothels and wherever there are brothels there will always be illicit drugs.”
The ANC’s call for radical transformation needed to be explained in detail, Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said.
“He must give the detail as far as that is concerned because potential investors are insecure about what that means. The ANC are talking about the banks, construction sector and the land issue. All three of those issues are very very important to ensure stability in the economy and now he targets them.”
– African News Agency (ANA)
