ESSET’s response to the State of the Nation Address 2013

President Jacob Zuma’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) presented last Thursday (14 February 2013) simply lacked inspiration. President Zuma missed the opportunity to use the occasion as platform to inspire confidence by providing the solutions to the many challenges confronting the nation. Instead, all he gave us was a bland version of previous SONAs, which provides no hope for our country.

At the close of the 53rd National Conference of the African National Congress held last December, the President declared that over the next five years, the ANC led- government will take decisive and resolute action to overcome the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Further, he had indicated that the year 2013 marked the beginning of the second phase transition, which will be focused on socio-economic transformation. However, in the SONA, the President mentioned nothing about the socio-economic transformation transition.

Having said this ESSET is also concerned that the President has based much focus of his solutions on the National Development Plan (NDP), which its effects could only be visible in the next 20 years. Something also confusing is the fact that the government introduced the New Growth Path last year but this season little is mentioned of it or how it would be paired with the NDP. He failed to clarify if the New Growth Path was still going to be pursued or it has been abandoned.

According to the President, the NDP is the focal solution to all the needs of our people from water provision, electricity, sanitation, jobs, housing, public transport, adequate nutrition, education, social protection, quality healthcare, recreation and a clean environment. Nevertheless, the President failed to use the SONA to sell the NDP and provide details of the strategy to implement it. The President further emphasised the need for all social actors, including business, labour and civil society, to work together to achieve the country’s objectives, especially the imperative to grow the economy in order to create 11-million jobs by 2030. This noble thought might be just one of the rhetoric’s as the President did not share light as to when and how this partnership would be facilitated.

 In relation to job creation, it is obvious that the government is not winning. Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) Quarterly Labour Force Survey revealed that employment figures fell sharply in January 2013 with about 68,000 jobs lost in the last three months of 2012. More job losses will mean more poverty and dependence on state grants. The President failed to announce progress on Youth Wage Subsidy, which has been a subject of discussion for years now. He desisted from providing details on the youth subsidy, only indicating that discussions in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) has been concluded and that agreement has been reached on key principles.

 As much as we support the job creation strategy for youth employment, the Youth Wage Subsidy concept was flawed. ESSET’s concern about the implementation of the youth subsidy was that it would subsidize employers that lower the cost of hiring inexperienced and unskilled young people and lead businesses not only abandoning their social responsibility towards society but also giving them power to exploit labour practices.

 

In the centenary year of the racist 1913 Natives Land Act, we are glad that the President admitted that government have only distributed 8% of the 30% target of land redistribution for 2014 and conceded, “the willing buyer- willing seller principle has not been the best model to address the emotive subject of land reform. However, the President failed to provide a convincing model for faster land distribution as well as fresh ideas on how rural development programmes will be used to build social and economic infrastructure, skills development and the promotion of co-operatives, especially owned by rural women and youth empowerment for their sustainable livelihood.

Besides being reliant on infrastructure projects, big business and the Expanded Public Works Programmes for job creation, ESSET is also of the view that President Zuma should inspire government to look at promoting the productivity and growth of informal enterprises because their contributions to economic growth can be increased with the kinds of incentives that currently only formal enterprises get. Labour-intensive growth of informal enterprises is likely to create more jobs than capital-intensive growth of formal enterprises. It also costs much less to create jobs in the informal economy than in the formal economy.

ESSET welcome the President’s announcement that “education would be made an essential service”. Additionally, as much as we agree with him that decent salaries and conditions of service will play an important role in attracting, motivating and retaining skilled teachers, we believe that children have the right to education and should not be held ransom by teachers. We are also of the view that the President should hold the education ministers accountable; not only to ensure delivery of text books, building of schools, feeding schemes for poor schools etc. but also on addressing broader challenges experienced within the education system.

We welcome the President’s report that the capacity of the Special Investigating Unit has grown from 70 staff members to more than 600. Nonetheless, ESSET is disappointed at government’s sluggish measures to deal harshly with corruption within its institutions. Media reports regular covers corruption and financial irregularities by public servants; from those at lower level, senior managers and even public office bearers. For instance, the Auditor General earlier this year released a report, which revealed that eight of the national departments had spent at least R24.6 billion on consultants in the past three-year period. The President would have at least condemned this extravagant wasteful expenditure which had no value for money.

The current state of the economy, the ever-increasing job losses in various sectors, protests for services and better life for all should be indication to President Zuma to speed up services in his second term. At the ANC’s 53rd Conference, the President pronounced the key aspects of economic policy that would help deepen socio-economic transformation. It is high time that we begin to see these noble promises made at SONA translated into action.