President Jacob Zuma is misleading the nation on job creation, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday.
The date for the release of jobs statistics created by the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) had come and gone with no word from Zuma, DA spokesperson James Masondo said.
“The end of January 2010 was the promised release date of official statistics as stated by Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge in November last year,” he said.
“January has come and gone and no figures have been released.”
Doidge said in December last year that only 223 000 “work opportunities” had been created.
“Whether these were actual jobs that had been created and not ‘opportunities’ to which the department quickly shifted to referencing, and whether or not these jobs were long-term, sustainable or imparted skills to any of the EPWP job-creation beneficiaries, is highly unlikely and remains unclear,” Masondo said.
“President Jacob Zuma’s failed promise to create 500 000 jobs by the end of 2009 is yet another example of his inability to lead a nation and deliver on his word.”
Masondo said he would ask Doidge when he planned to release the figures, and whether the EPWP had “redefined job-creation opportunities” to exclude temporary and short-term contracts from being counted as a “job created”. — Sapa