President Jacob Zuma delivers his first State of the Nation address on Wednesday as a recession threatens to play havoc with election promises to create jobs and fight poverty.
In office for under a month, Zuma will have to cultivate optimism over the African National Congress’s goals to stamp out corruption, improve service delivery and focus on rural development, in an increasingly bleak economy.
But he will also have to deliver a reality check, dampening expectations over ANC election promises. Analysts say he is likely to acknowledge it will be tough to fulfill these promises with the economy in recession.
”Government has warned fairly squarely that government can only do so much, they are heavily constrained by the global financial crisis,” said independent political analyst Daniel Silke.
”I think we will see a reiteration of some of the central themes of Zuma’s inauguration which touched on issues of service delivery and promoting a more inclusive South Africa.”
The new president is also likely to repeat his admonition of laziness in the civil service while calling on South Africans to buckle down in the challenging economic times, Silke added.
The Democratic Alliance urged Zuma to implement a recovery plan for key industries.
”South Africa is now in a full-blown recession. We must create jobs to pull us out of it. Not artificial, government-driven jobs in public works programmes, but real, sustainable jobs in industries that work,” said Atholl Trollip, DA parliamentary leader.
Susan Booysens, an analyst at the Witwatersrand University, said ANC government’s job was ”as challenging as you can get”.
Zuma’s speech comes a week after the country officially entered its first recession in 17 years as the economy contracted 6,4% in the first quarter, a figure which shocked economists.
The announcement brought with it further fears of job cuts, and interest rates were slashed another full point to 7,5%, although unions demanded they be cut even further to stimulate the economy.
Earlier this year, economists predicted that up to 250 000 jobs would be lost as the mining and automotive industries suffer.
”There has been the accumulation of problems. Ineffective, lack of capacity in the public sector, sub-optimal implementation [of policy] — that comes in a period of global and South African crises in a time where South African citizens really have huge expectations,” Booysens said.
Trollip warned of ”increasing threats to provincial and local government powers” as dissatisfaction mounted over lack of basic services. – AFP
