Sir
The ring of steel and the total pandemonium in Parliament said more than everything about what Jacob Zuma had to say during SONA.
As his legitimacy has been in serious question in many quarters, post-judgment of the Constitutional Court last year, Zuma is limply hanging onto power by force rather than through holding the moral high ground.
What Zuma said carried little weight. It was just smoke and mirrors of 2011, the copy of what was said then, boasted of creating five million jobs or the injection of R9 billion to stimulate job creation.
In question 3905 of November 6 2015, COPE President Lekota asked the President of the Republic if Government achieved any significant milestones towards creating millions of jobs by 2020 including bringing the unemployment rate down to 15%. President Lekota’s question at the time was a follow-up to Zuma’s declaration of 2011, the year he said was of job creation where he also made announcement of several initiatives to boost job creation including setting up of R9 billion jobs funding.
The fuzzy response from Zuma showed that the man has continued to be expansive in making empty promises, expensive in running government and most unimpressive in delivery. It is therefore not astonishing that he considers a 1.3% growth rate as being satisfactory.
Once again Zuma puts forward the nine-point plant to create what he termed “much needed jobs”. He also lauded the CEO initiative which anyway has been driven by the Minister of Finance.
He also committed the government to renewable energy while Eskom is actively attempting to undermine it. Zuma is clearly leading a government that is in increasing disarray. His assessment of the country making marked improvement in Mathematics and Science runs quite contrary to the common view.
His trump card for 2017 is to achieve radical economic transformation. The fact that Zuma depleted the treasury that was left full by the former President Thabo Mbeki and maxing government’s credit card by escalating the national debt to over R2 trillion rand means that government intervention in business will be very constrained.
While total government procurement for this year will be R500 billion, the debt service cost will be close to R150 billion and the two amounts will roughly equal half the tax revenue.
In the absence of funds, the land question will remain a perennial question under Zuma, expropriation notwithstanding.
COPE, like other parties, made its position very clear that it was untenable for Zuma to continue in office after having broken his Oath of Office.
As such, COPE was never going to give him audience.
Zuma betrayed the nation and he has done a great disservice to the reputation and standing of South Africa.
He has become the great wrecking ball destroying institutions and misdirecting the scarce resources of the nation.
There was nothing sparkling in how he spoke or in what he had to say. His only captive audience remains those in the ANC ranks who feed at the trough at his pleasure.
Mosiuoa Lekota
COPE President
