The President's most important job is to create jobs

Note to editors: The following statement was distributed at a press conference hosted in Parliament today by DA Parliamentary Leader Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, ID Parliamentary Leader Joe McGluwa MP, and DA National Spokesperson Musi Maimane. 

When President Jacob Zuma delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address tomorrow we expect him to present his vision for South Africa's future. Most importantly, he must outline a concrete strategy of how to get there. 

This address is an opportunity for the President to reflect on what the government has achieved over the past year, and provide South Africans with a plan for 2012. It also enables Parliament to play a central role in debating this vision and contributing to the strategy for the year ahead.

South Africans want to be inspired and excited about their future. They don't want to be presented with another bureaucratic check-list of targets and promises. They want the President to be bold and decisive, to put their needs before the internal politics of the tripartite alliance. 

President Zuma must start by being honest about his government's shortcomings. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has kept track of the pledges he has made in previous State of the Nation Addresses and whether or not they have been upheld. Unfortunately, the vast majority have not been. 

We have identified ten key broken promises which the President has not kept in 2011:

1. Year of the job

President Zuma declared that 2011 would be the ‘Year of the Job'. Yet, economic growth remained sluggish at 3.2% per annum during 2011, while other developing countries such as Brazil and India continue to outperform South Africa. As a result, during the course of 2011, the number of unemployed people increased by 107 000 to over 4.2 million people at the beginning of 2012.

2. Training Lay-Off Scheme 

In 2009, R6 billion was set aside for government's Training Lay-Off Scheme. In his 2011 address, President Zuma noted that a key achievement of his administration was the introduction of this scheme to provide alternatives to retrenchments. However, by the end of 2011, only an estimated 6 000 laid-off workers had benefited from his policy - less than 1% of the 900 000 people who lost their jobs between 2009 and 2011.

3. Youth Wage Subsidy

In 2010, the President announced that proposals would be tabled to subsidise the hiring of younger workers. But, due to COSATU opposition, the proposal remains deadlocked in NEDLAC.

4. Creating an enabling environment for growth and jobs

In 2011, the President said that he would look to the private sector to provide most of the jobs South Africans needed. By the end of the year, statistics indicated that any new growth in jobs during 2011 was either directly or indirectly related to state-driven employment schemes. This job creation is unsustainable, and will hamper rapid economic growth - which must be the key vehicle for lowering unemployment in South Africa.

5. Service delivery

President Zuma emphasised a commitment to better and faster service delivery. Yet the gap between money spent and outcomes delivered remains significant. The PSC Fact Sheet on the State of the Public Service indicates that in 2009/10 and 2010/11, departments achieved only 59% of their planned output, despite spending close to 100% of their budgets.

6. Social grants 

President Zuma pledged that social grants would be linked to economic activity and community development. While there were isolated attempts to pilot such a programme in the North West and Eastern Cape, it has not been rolled out nationally. 15.2 million South Africans continue to rely on social grants, without any direct assistance to obtain employment, and break the cycle of dependency on the state.

7. Health 

President Zuma pledged to appoint appropriately qualified personnel to the right positions in the health service. No progress has yet been made. A study commissioned by the Minister of Health revealed that many hospital CEOs have only a matric certificate, and have no knowledge of the field. In the Eastern Cape, for example, the study found that 4 out of 6 of National Centre and Tertiary hospital CEOs were performing below the 50th percentile in competence scores. 

8. International relations

President Zuma pledged to use South Africa's non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council to promote peace and security in Africa and the world. However, South Africa's position on African affairs has been inconsistent. We supported the flawed electoral process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and did not speak out against government-sponsored violence in the run-up to the election.

South Africa initially supported the former President of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, when he refused to hand over power to his rival after a disputed election, although President Zuma did eventually endorse Gbagbo's opponent. Furthermore, South Africa supported UN intervention in Libya, but subsequently opposed the use of force in Libya, and adopted the AU position.

9. Textbooks 

President Zuma pledged that every child would have a textbook on time. This has not been realised. As of 18 January 2012, there were no textbooks available to Grades 1-3 and Grade 10 learners in Limpopo. Mpumalanga failed to order any textbooks to address major shortages, and Section 21 schools (which purchase textbooks directly from publishers) in the Eastern Cape spent only R104 million out of a R607 million budget allocated by the provincial department. This points to a major crisis in our education system, which is unable to get textbooks to students in time.

10. Corruption

President Zuma pledged to continue the fight against corruption "at all levels of government and the public service." There has been little progress made, with South Africa dropping from 43rd to 64th in the Transparency International Index in 2011. The passing of the Protection of State Information Bill by the National Assembly was also a step in the wrong direction. If the Bill is passed into law as it currently stands, genuine whistle-blowers wishing to expose corruption would find themselves being criminally charged.

President Zuma must use his State of the Nation Address this year to reverse this legacy of non-delivery and broken promises, by providing bold solutions to key challenges facing South Africans and following through with them. If the President is serious about job creation and creating a better life for all South Africans, he should announce a number of key proposals.

Economic growth and job creation

President Zuma must take a much bolder approach to boost economic growth, and stimulate job creation. His approach should focus on encouraging private sector-led growth, and removing impediments to rapid economic growth. The President needs to take a number of key steps:

• He must admit that South Africa's current labour legislation and regulations discourage companies from hiring more employees. There is a series of problematic amendments to labour legislation which is on its way and which will make the situation even worse. The President must stop this legislation from coming to Parliament. Furthermore, he must conduct a review of existing legislation, so that it contributes to job creation, instead of undermining it.
• A lack of skilled workers severely inhibits economic growth. Providing our children with a quality education and driving vocational training and skills development must therefore form part of his economic growth strategy.
• The red tape and high costs of doing business in South Africa must be addressed by the President, as they undermine entrepreneurship and the growth of small businesses.
• South Africa's competitiveness needs to be enhanced in order to attract investment, increase productivity and drive innovation.
• South Africa requires genuine broad-based black economic empowerment in order to allow for participation of all South Africans in the economy.
• The President must address South Africa's ineffective industrial policy. IPAP (Industrial Policy Action Plan) 2 requires extensive intervention by government departments that do not have the capacity to boost industrial growth, and is therefore unsustainable.
• President Zuma must also introduce targeted tax cuts to help newly established small businesses get off the ground; create a more investor-friendly atmosphere with strong incentives; and provide opportunity vouchers to assist matriculants in funding their studies or starting small businesses.
• The President needs to ensure that the Youth Wage Subsidy is implemented, so that it can help create jobs.

Education

Only an estimated 33% of all South Africans who were enrolled in Grade 1 in 2000 passed their matric exams in 2011. This equates to 469 070 students who have dropped out of the education system during this period of time. If South Africa is to undo the legacy of Apartheid, initiate rapid economic growth, and significantly reduce unemployment, an educated and skilled nation is essential. 

• To do this, President Zuma must address two key challenges, namely the poor quality of education, and the lack of accountability for below par school performance. This will require commitment to raise the standards of education, but also the provision of skills to teachers. 
• This requires levels of accountability between departments of education, principals and teachers, so that every individual is held accountable for poor outcomes. In this regard, President Zuma must be prepared to stand up to the South African Democratic Teachers' Union.
• President Zuma must give South Africans a commitment that he will ensure that the delivery of textbooks to schools will be done timeously and without exception. 
• Of those pupils who wrote last year's matric maths paper, one in six received less than 10% and more than half got less than 30% for physical science. The President must introduce an urgent strategy to confront this poor performance in maths and science, as such skills are essential for economic growth in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy.

Health

An estimated 85% of South Africans rely on the public healthcare system. It is however crumbling, and lacks the necessary human resources, infrastructure and management to make it work. 

• Poor management systems and a lack of sufficient oversight continue to be challenges in the public healthcare system, and therefore need to be addressed urgently.
• The President must address the lack of accountability present in the public health care system, and the problem of weak and incompetent hospital management. This requires putting in place effective oversight mechanisms and an effective feedback system regarding the quality of health care being received. 
• As of 2010, the weighted average vacancy rate for GPs was 49% in the public sector. The President must prioritise the training of new doctors and nurses, so that these gaps can be filled and quality healthcare can be provided to all South Africans. 
• This should be supported through the development of creative mechanisms to support trainee medical staff in the workplace, through mentoring and apprenticeships.

The National Health Insurance is not the solution to the problems facing our healthcare system, which continues to provide low-quality services. It will merely create a bureaucratic and inefficient healthcare superstructure that will diminish the quality of public healthcare, and in doing so divert billions of Rands from other development challenges such as the provision of basic services, education and housing. 

14. Safety and security

South Africa still maintains one of the highest levels of crime in the world. While there have been successive reductions in the crime rate over the last two years, the progress needs to be more significant. 

• There continue to be numerous instances of maladministration, corruption and wasteful expenditure which undermine the SAPS' ability to respond to crime effectively. The President therefore needs to take steps to ensure that all police officers possess the right basic skills and pass regular fitness tests. Conviction on a charge of corruption should result in an instant dismissal. President Zuma must ensure that the newly enacted Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) is equipped with the necessary resources, and that the legislation governing the body is effectively implemented. This is essential if it is to be able to act against errant police officers, who should be fighting crimes, not committing them. 
• South Africa needs a crime strategy which takes into account the fact that every community is different in terms of crime threats. The President must give police stations the autonomy they need to develop localised responses to crime problems. 
• The President must also ensure that there is a coordinated working relationship between the private sector and the SAPS. This will help to facilitate a transfer of skills, and will enable them to work together to strengthen the fight against crime. 
• The conviction rate for murder is less than 13%. To fight crime we need to increase this rate by boosting the quality of detective work, reducing the backlog in forensic laboratories and ensuring that all police are adequately skilled. A criminal must not be able to go free because a police officer did not do his job correctly.

15. Service delivery 

The public service plays a critical role in the efficient delivery of quality services to the people of South Africa.

For South Africa to work, the government must be effective and smart. However, the current systems which govern the Public Service are archaic, stifled by bureaucratic rules and regulations, and layers of middle management.

• To be an efficient employer and to ensure public services are of a high quality, the government needs to reform its pay, recruitment and promotion policies, and implement innovative programmes to address the service delivery backlogs South Africans currently face.
• President Zuma must empower those responsible for service delivery by eliminating excessive centralisation, improving management training, cutting out unnecessary red tape, and providing one-stop shops where people can do all their government business at one place.
• The government must outsource services from competing suppliers to boost private sector competition, but do so in a process that is open, transparent and fair.
• Hard-working and capable public servants need to be recognised and rewarded.
• Key to achieving these goals will be to immediately cease the programme of cadre deployment, so that all South Africans, regardless of political affiliation, are afforded opportunities to work for the state. 

16. Clean government

A clean government is an efficient government. Every cent must be spent in the best interests of the people. Corruption therefore needs to be seriously addressed. 

• The President must announce this week that he will support legislation which will regulate the business interests of state employees, so that they will not improperly profit from government business. 
• President Zuma must speed up amendments to the Ministerial Handbook to prevent Ministers wasting public money on their own luxuries. 
• If the President is serious about the fight against corruption, he will not sign the Secrecy Bill into law in its current form, as it will undermine press freedom and criminalise investigative journalism and oversight.

This year President Zuma must bridge the divide between his promises and delivering on them. South Africa needs visionary leadership, innovative policies designed to address key challenges facing the country, as well as the political will to get things done. 

In doing this, promoting economic growth and job creation must be the President's focus. He must do this by showing bold and decisive leadership. South Africa needs an employed, educated, safe and healthy citizenry if it is to succeed. This is the South Africa that President Zuma's policies must work towards.

Issued by the DA, February 8 2012

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